One Woman's Write

It's been one of those days...

2012-01-27T18:37:00.001-06:00

No, not one of those days. This has been one of those days that you want to hold onto, to remember in every fine detail. One of those days you know will make you smile every time you look back on it.

One of my favorite authors is Nevada Barr, author of the Anna Pigeon mystery series. I recently browsed author websites just to see who might be on a book tour. Nevada has a new book out now, The Rope, and it's the prequel to the Anna Pigeon series. I discovered that she was going to be in Mississippi today and decided to go to her signing at TurnRow Books in Greenwood. It's about a two hour drive from me. We had a beautiful day here, weather in the fifties and sunshine. My friend Shari went along, which always makes the trip an adventure and lots of laughs.

I went only with the expectation of having lunch, hearing Nevada Barr speak and getting a signed copy of The Rope. What I got was so much more. I had the pleasure of enjoying lunch with Nevada and her husband (and their two adorable dogs). It's always a thrill to meet someone you deeply admire. It's even better when that person is so approachable and puts you at ease. We had a lovely conversation over lunch and Nevada spoke on her journey as a writer and the new book. I'm eager to get into The Rope because it's a prequel to the Anna Pigeon series--how it all started.

Here's proof of my day and if you doubt my smile is genuine, well that's your problem.

If you've never read a Nevada Barr book (gasp), get thee to a bookstore. You've got a lot of catching up to do.

Linda

In Case You've Been Wondering

2012-01-24T21:14:00.000-06:00

...what I've been up to.

This is what Binky sees every time she sits in front of my recliner and looks at me. I think she thinks my name is Toshiba and I have no face.

So, what have I been up to? Christmas brought my sweet contemporary romance novel (my tenth published book), Reinventing Christmas, and I was really busy promoting the book.

(coming soon in trade paperback)

I took advantage of having my friend Sue Ann, a trained photographer here for the holidays, and got a couple of new photos done for my website.

I'm literally beside myself!

Since Christmas, I finished the edits and galleys for Wake-Up Call (contemporary romance) that comes out in ebook in March from Champagne Books.

(love the cover art Amanda Kelsey created)

But, wait--there's more. Turquoise Morning Press has contracted my women's fiction, Act of Contrition, for publication in January, 2013. And Wings ePress will publish The Promise Tree (encore l'amour romance) in April of this year.

I've been the best kind of busy while I await the EPIC eBook Awards in which Love, Sam has finaled in the mainstream category. Winners will be announced on March 17 at the EPICon Awards Banquet. Sadly I'm not able to be in San Antonio for the conference. But keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned.

While I await the publication of the next books and sit on pins and needles until EPICon, I'll be busy finishing novels number fourteen and fifteen.

Well, there you have it for those of you who have wondered where I've been lately. I'm right here, under the laptop, ignoring the cat's stare as best I can.

(and I don't think she likes it one bit.)

Linda

2012-01-12T21:16:00.000-06:00

With this new year, I'm happy to continue the Author Spotlight feature. This month, I'm very pleased to welcome author Therese Kinkaide into the spotlight.

1. Please tell us a little about yourself.

Even though I majored in Political Science and I have a Masters in Education and spent a few years in the early childhood field, I’ve always been a writer at heart. All I ever wanted to do was write fiction. I was a prekindergarten teacher for a few years before I made the decision to stay at home with my kids. I love being a stay at home mom, mostly because I love being available to my kids all day. I also love that it enables me to follow my heart and write fiction. I love music, love to watch my kids play sports…learned last year it is very cool to be a golf mom…and I love to read.

2. Every author I’ve met has their own unique story of how they found their way into writing. What path led you to become an author?

I started my first book when I was in 5th grade. I don’t remember much about it, except that my main character’s name was Hazel. I wrote several (horrible) books by hand through high school. When I was in college, I bought a word processer for all of those fun papers I had to write. I also started writing my books with the word processer. I had no interest in studying journalism, or even creative writing, when I was in school. For me, writing wasn’t something to study or learn. The desire to write has just always been a part of me. In 1998, I found Xlibris, an online printer, and I self-published my first book, Betrayal. I sold very few copies, but at that time, I was thrilled to see my work in book format. In 2005, I had a completed manuscript that I believed in, that I wanted to see published. I queried agents, but I also researched small publishers online and eventually decided to submit Luther’s Cross to Wings E Press. Even after publishing Luther’s Cross, I hesitated to call myself an author. If people asked me what I did for a living, I told them I was a stay at home mom. I let other things take precedence over my writing. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to be a professional writer and if I wanted others to see me as a professional writer, then I had to treat myself as a professional and I had to work at it daily and make it my job. Now when people ask me what I do, I tell them I write fiction and I am a published author.

3. What aspect of the writing process do you enjoy the most? What part of the process do you dread?

I love the creative part, the thinking and the plotting. I think I start with characters. I am fascinated by people and their relationships, and my books all focus on relationships and the way people in those relationships interact. My characters tend to be composites of people I know and admire. I put my characters through hell, not because I can, but because I am fascinated with the journeys they take within the covers of a book and the things they learn about themselves. I want my readers to be in the story, to feel the happiness or the heartache, and the best way to do that is to bring my characters to life. I dread the editing…and the editing…and the editing…I hate that part of the process-the reading, the rewriting, the editing, because I get to the point where I hate the story line. However, once I get past that part of the process, and the book is ready for publishers, for readers, I have no desire to reread it but I’m excited about it again.

4. What author has most influenced or inspired you?

Oh boy. I love, love, love to read, and I read fast, so I read a lot. I have a lot of favorite authors, and often, any book that I enjoy, that I think is well-written, inspires me to go sit down and write something. I’ve had readers compare my writing to other writers (Jodi Picoult, Patricia Cornwell, and Alice Hoffman to name a few) but the two names that come to mind are Patricia Cornwell and Dean Koontz. I love Cornwell’s Scarpetta series, and I love her style. I believe it was the 13th Scarpetta novel (Trace) when she switched and started writing in present tense, instead of past tense. I was enthralled with that book, and have flown through all of her books since then. I feel like I am right there beside Kay Scarpetta and Pete Marino when I read Cornwell’s books. I also love her run-on sentences, and I love how some of those run-on sentences seem to be incongruent. (I got docked points for incongruent compound sentences on an essay when I was in Rhetoric & Composition in college.) Her books just flow, and I hope she writes another five or ten or twenty Scarpetta novels. I have never been compared to Dean Koontz, but I love his writing. He is incredible at characterization, and his description of characters, of setting, of plot is so eloquent and flowery and fun. I just finished his latest book (77Shadow Street) and there were several bits I read aloud to my husband and my daughter, because they were so descriptive and fun. I think he could write a book about a guy reading the phone book or writing a grocery list, and I would love it.

5. Can you tell us a little about your book(s), especially your most recent release?

I write women’s fiction and middle grade/young adult fiction. My women’s fiction novels include Luther’s Cross, Fairytale, Just Like Them, and Small Hours. I think each of my books is very different, though I think most probably a reader could detect my voice in each of them.

Luther’s Cross is a contemporary romance about a woman whose son vanished five years ago. Ellie Jordan has to find a way to forgive herself for her past, for losing Luther, before she can allow herself to fall in love.

Fairytale is a psychological suspense/thriller. Caroline Wolfe wakes up from a coma with no memories and the gut feeling that she’s in grave danger.

Luther's Cross and Fairytale are available at Wings ePress while Luther's Cross and Betrayal are available at Amazon.com

Just Like Them and Small Hours are my two most recent books.

Small Hours is a Christmas book that involves lifelong friendships, a little bit of romance and the question of where Christmas magic goes when we grow up.

Just Like Them is a family drama that asks the question what would you do if your daughter made a bad choice that may have driven someone to commit suicide? I love all of my books, all of my characters, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Just Like Them. It’s a very intense, emotional book that examines the way one teen’s bad decisions can tear a good, upstanding, loving family down to nothing. I found myself near tears often as I wrote it, and I was emotionally drained when I finished it. It took me several months to feel like writing again.

See Therese's website for ordering information on Just Like Them and Small Hours.

6. What can readers expect in the coming months? What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on a creepy adventure story for my son and his friends in his age group (11.) It’s called Wanna Play? I hope to finish a rough draft very soon, and I am so anxious to put it in my son’s hands and see what he thinks. (My daughter has read a few of my books, and she’s enjoyed them, but this will be my son’s first.) I have a women’s fiction novel started called Tennessee River, which I am anxious to get back to…And…I have something else stirring in the back of my mind…which is how Just Like Them started….just a thought…Figured I’d just write that first line and save it and go back to it later. (I was working on a young adult novel at the time.) About five chapters later, I knew I was a gonner, and I had to go with what I was feeling. There’s something new calling to me that same way. Just trying to get a handle on it and let it gel before I jump into it.

7. Where can you be found on the web? (web site, blogs, social network links)

My website is http://www.theresekinkaide.com/.com and we are in the process of a major overhaul there, so keep checking back for information on the newer novels and the middle grade/young adult books. I started a blog about a year ago, but I must confess, I am just not organized enough to do it. I can’t keep up with it. I volunteer at my son’s school library, and I spend a lot of time, energy and love on a blog project there. I review two books a week, introduce an author each week, blog about what I’m reading and/or writing or anything else the kids might be interested in, and I try to do a weekly newsletter. Instead of a writing blog, I’ve decided just to try to update my website with a monthly newsletter. You can find me at Manic Readers www.manicreaders.com/theresekinkaide and Coffee Time Romance has a five cup review of Luther’s Cross at http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Lutherscross.html.

Thanks so much, Therese. And for our readers, I've had the privilege of reading Therese's books and reviewing a few of them. She is a talented author who paints a brilliant tapestry of the life of her characters and makes you want to know them intimately.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-22T00:02:00.000-06:00

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A

HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

I'm taking some time off to enjoy the company of friends and to catch up on my reading. If you're looking for some holiday reading, check out Reinventing Christmas.

It will be available for only .99 cents for

one day only on December 24 at

Champagne Books (in ebook only).

(click cover)

See you all in 2012.

Linda

Author Spotlight - Kimberley Dehn

2011-12-15T23:39:00.000-06:00

I'm pleased to shine this month's spotlight on fellow author and good friend, Kimberley Dehn.

Every author I’ve met has their own unique story of how they found their way into writing. What path led you to become an author?

I had a crush on Merrill Osmond of the Osmond Brothers and would write stories about me going on adventures with his brothers. I was maybe 14. I think now it might be considered YA erotica cuz there was some hand-holding and serious kissing going on. Before that, I was inspired by the movie, Oliver, and wrote my own version. I recall showing my story to my father, an educator for our local school system, and he helped me revise the opening paragraph. I’d used the word ragamuffins. He used the word, tatterdemalion. Whatta word! I was hooked! A whole new world of words opened up for me. I actually read the dictionary like a novel, soaking up words and meanings. As a result, I now have little trouble coming up with the right word off the top of my head. I wrote constantly throughout my teens, abandoning dear Merrill to explore other romantical-type stories. I read a lot of Barbara Cartland back then.

What aspect of the writing process do you enjoy the most? What part of the process do you dread?

I enjoy layering. Twisting a simple plot into so many curves, searching for the surprise to keep my reader entertained. It takes a lot to entertain me, so I use my high bar to push myself, always looking for the unexpected or the quirky. I love exploring characters, their goals, their flaws, their secrets that I am often not aware of until the end of perhaps the second draft. What do I dread? Letting go. Giving my precious baby to a critique group, a reader, an editor… I want feedback, I value honest opinion. And I don’t argue if I’m told something isn’t working. I’m aware that as a writer I’m too close to my WIP to see its flaws, so feedback is essential to my growth as a writer. But still, sending my baby off into the cold cruel world is emotional.

What author has most influenced or inspired you?

Lilian Jackson Braun who penned “The Cat Who…”. cozy mystery series centered around the life of former newspaper reporter, James Qwilleran, and his two Siamese cats, KoKo and Yum Yum, in the fictitious small town of Pickax located in Moose County “400 miles north of everywhere.” Her humor, love of cats, and the town of quirky characters spoke to me like no other book series out there. She was also a fellow Michigander, and was a reporter for my home town newspaper. She passed on this year at age 97, but she wrote right up until the end. I’m in deep mourning, not only for her passing, but also for the passing of all of her beloved characters. She wrote 29 books. That’s how long I’ve been her fan, so I feel like I’ve lost a loved one from my own family.

Can you tell us a little about your book?

Inspired by Ms. Braun’s small-town quirkiness, as well as the movie, Overboard, and Northern Exposure, the 90’s TV series, I wrote Southern Exposure, the story of a runaway bride from a wealthy, but dysfunctional family, and a single-father mayor of a small Georgia town sliding into the ooze of financial oblivion. I love quirky, and I love to laugh. So I did my usual plot-twisting and brought in Junior Upchurch, a behemoth pig whose scent lures unsuspecting chickens to their death when they follow Junior home to his owner, who has a take-out fried chicken shack. The heroine, Kat Hubbard, ends up in jail with Junior when he’s arrested. I’m notorious for falling in love with my secondary characters, so I had to sit on Mayor Dean Mickler’s seven-year-old daughter, Stevie, who threatened to take over the book. The scenes between motherless Stevie, who is bent on destroying Kat, and Kat, who knows next to nothing about children, are my favorite. I’m also pretty proud of the cover. I shot the photo of the red bra and jelly beans, and the shadow cleavage was just pure serendipity. Unfortunately some think the red bra means the story is erotica. Not for all the moon pies in Georgia! My mother-in-law was gonna read my book, not to mention my daddy! Southern Exposure was a finalist for a 2009 EPIC eBooks Award.

What can readers expect in the coming months? What are you working on now?

I love fairytales, and I love cozy mysteries, and I love Christmas. So I’ve spent the time since Southern Exposure’s debut working to combine all three into another character-driven, plot-twisting, laugh-out-loud story, which I hope will be the first book in a series. I get emotionally attached to my character people, and I hate to say goodbye. Writing a series makes sense for me.

Where can you be found on the web?

My author website is http://www.kimberley-dehn.com/. I published Southern Exposure under Kimberley Dehn, my mom’s maiden name to honor her, as she passed away at age 42. For future books I will use Kimberley Koz. My name is Kozlowski, but a lot of people see the Z and the SKI and freak that it’s unpronounceable.
Writers are told to write what they know, and write what they can’t shut up about. Well, just about every writer has a blog about the writing process. I can’t compete to any degree, so instead I blog about what I can’t shut up about: Cats! I’ve rescued strays for 25+ years. I’m currently feline beck and call girl to six indoor cats, one who 20 years old. I have several outdoor ex-strays, too. Plus a group of raccoons that have made my yard their home for the past six years. This summer I rescued a deaf and blind baby raccoon (named Helen, naturally). I blogged about her, too. So follow me at Kept by Cats: Writer Interrupted at http://keptbycats.blogspot.com/.

Twitter: Author tweets are at https://twitter.com/KimberleyKoz

Also https://twitter.com/Keptbycats since I really can’t shut up about my cats.

Recently my cat, Herman, got a Twitter account https://twitter.com/TattleCat and he’s kicking my butt with Followers. Apparently he has more to say to his Anipals than I do to my writer friends. It’s so embarrassing.

Publisher page for Southern Exposure is:

http://www.wings-press.com/Bookstore/Southern%20Exposure.htm

I’m also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kimberley.kozlowski

Thanks so much, Kim, for visiting One Woman's Write. And, readers, Southern Exposure is one of the funniest romances you will ever read. You'll fall in love with the characters--even Junior the pig. Linda

New Cover Art - Coming March, 2012...

2011-12-12T20:18:00.000-06:00

I just got this cover art for Wake-Up Call, my March, 2012 release with Champagne Books. Who doesn't love a modern-day cowboy?

Linda

And the Winner Is...

2011-12-01T21:18:00.001-06:00

January Bain. Congratulations! Your pdf copy of Reinventing Christmas has been sent to you via email.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Linda

Share your favorite Christmas story or memory.

2011-11-15T20:45:00.002-06:00

It's here at last--REINVENTING CHRISTMAS is now available in ebook. This sweet, heartwarming romance is sure to get you into the Christmas spirit. M.J. Rich heads home for holidays to enjoy a nice, quiet, traditional family Christmas. Things don't turn out exactly as she expects.

As I celebrate the release of REINVENTING CHRISTMAS, I invite you to share a story of memory from your own Christmas experiences. On December 1, I'll draw a name and the winner will receive a free download of REINVENTING CHRISTMAS. So be sure to include an email address for contact in your message post.

And get your copy of REINVENTING CHRISTMAS now from Champagne Books It's only $3.99. It's like Christmas came early.

Linda

Meet Author Lizzy Stevens

2011-11-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

In this month's Author Spotlight, I'm pleased to feature author Lizzy Stevens.

1. Every author I’ve met has their own unique story of how they found their way into writing. What path led you to become an author?

Honestly I didn’t have it in my mind to become an author. It was always something I was interested in. Growing up if you were looking for me you would probably find me curled up to a good book somewhere. I was always reading. I had thought about writing but never took that big step. I was always afraid I wasn’t good enough. You know that feeling. We all have it. LOL. But I got up the nerve and sent my first book out in 2008 and it was accepted and I haven’t stopped since.

2. What aspect of the writing process to you enjoy the most? What part of the process do you dread?

Like everyone I’m sure. LOL I hate the editing stage. Every author falls in love with what they write and then the editors says that dreaded words LOL These pages here need to be cut or this scene needs to be left out. And you are left sitting there thinking “but I thought it was great” LOL. So definitely the editing is the worst part. The best part of course is creating characters that you fall in love with and hope everyone else falls in love with.

3. What author has most influenced or inspired you?

I don’t really have an author who influenced me. I love to read. So I jump from romance, to mystery, to paranormal. If it’s a good book I read it. LOL So it would be really hard for me to pick the one author who most influenced me.

4. Can you tell us a little about your book(s)?

“A Surprise For Christmas” is about a woman, Samantha, who looks up a the Christmas star and makes a wish to find love. That night there is a knock at her door and when she answers it there is a baby on her doorstep with a note. The mother is dying and is giving her the child. Samantha’s whole world has now been turned upside down but not as much as it’s going to be. When she falls in love with the child and would do anything for her child, the father shows up. He wants the baby. He didn’t know the mother was giving the baby away. Now Samantha’s world has shattered. She can’t lose her child. She is left with a lot to deal with. It’s a very touching Christmas story that will touch the heart of all it’s readers.

5. What can readers expect in the coming months? What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on a mystery. “Blackbeard’s Hidden Treasure” it will be ready the first part of the year.

6. Where can you be found on the web? (web site, blogs, social network links)

http://twitter.com/LizzyStevens123

http://www.lizzystevens.blogspot.com/

http://www.lizzystevens.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lizzy-Stevens/190503464326261

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lizzy-Stevens/190503464326261#!/profile.php?id=100001030391242

Blurb: A Surprise for Christmas

Samantha wasn’t expecting what she got for Christmas this year. Her doorbell rang and there sitting on her porch was a baby in a basket. This changes her life for the good. But then something happens. The baby’s father comes for his child. How can Samantha convince him that she is the best thing for the child?

Buy Link

I'm married and the mother of two wonderful boys. I've been writing for a few years and have several books published. You can find all of my books at Solstice Publishing. When I'm not spending time with my family you will find me sitting at my computer thinking of my next story.

Breaking News!

2011-10-29T00:27:00.000-05:00

Early release date for

Reinventing Christmas.

Coming November 15 from

Champagne Books.

Read an advance review.

Finding Hope is Featured in New E-zine

2011-10-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

Great news! FINDING HOPE is featured in the very first issue of the new online magazine, THE JOY RIDE. You can check it out with this link:

http://issuu.com/joysource/docs/joy_ride_oct11_magazine/1?zoomed=&zoomPercent=&zoomX=&zoomY=&noteText=&noteX=&noteY=&viewMode=magazine
And while you're there, subscribe to the magazine. It's got lots of great articles for women.

Thanks to Julie McGrath for including FINDING HOPE in her first issue.

Linda

Author Spotlight - Donna B. Snow

2011-10-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

This week's Author Spotlight shines on inspirational romance author Donna B. Snow.

1. Every author I’ve met has their own unique story of how they found their way into writing. What path led you to become an author?

Path? Um, yeah, like I planned it...hmmm so very not so! I’ve been an avid reader since my teenage years huddling in bed with a good book every night. I could get lost in a good story for hours on end. But my writing path didn’t even begin until I was almost 40 and had a child to read stories to every night. Well, reading turned into making them up, which eventually turned into writing them down because she wanted me to remember them. Then one day as I finished typing those children’s stories into my computer an idea blossomed – and that’s when I meandered onto this path.

2. What aspect of the writing process to you enjoy the most? What part of the process do you dread?

I love the beginning when the idea is fresh and the story is just starting out. See I can’t plot to save my life. I know where I’ll start and where it will end. I probably have a few ideas of things that will happen somewhere in the middle, but other than that, it’s like reading a good book. I’ve made myself cry many times as characters unburden griefs from the past that I HAD NO IDEA those things had happened to them. I’ve learned to keep a box of tissues near my work desk!

3. What author has most influenced or inspired you?

You know, this is really an unfair question because every author I have ever read, and ever will read has the potential to influence me. For example, I recently read an inspirational romance that made something click in my brain and say, “That’s what my story needs!” (Thank you, Marianne Evans! LOL) I have to admit though, Nora Roberts was probably the first author I ever had to get my hands on everything she’s written – love the Irish stories best. Then there’s Nicholas Sparks, and Karen Kingsbury, and Suzanne Brockman, and Rachel Vincent...well, you get the idea...

4. Can you tell us a little about your book(s)?

Well, my writing is almost as eclectic as my reading. So I’ll stick to what’s near and dear to my heart nowadays! I have 3 stories that have been published so far – 2 others that have been rejected and are in the process of being rewritten. First there’s Daffodils, a ‘second chance’ inspirational romance. There’s just something about getting a second chance at a romance that was meant to be that makes my heart sing. Then there’s Dance of a Lifetime, a sweetheart romance that was published as part of a Dance anthology. And I have one paranormal under a different name that was actually my first story ever published. The two rewrites I’m working on are both inspirational romances that I hope to see placed with White Rose Publishing when they’re done.

5. What can readers expect in the coming months? What are you working on now?

Well, I’m almost done with the rewrite of a story about a woman and her coffee house. This story is near and dear to my heart because I play guitar and write music myself, and I had a dream that I opened a coffee house. This is the story of what the place I envisioned would be. And it has a sequel that’s already more than half written, also.

6. Where can you be found on the web? (web site, blogs, social network links)

Thus far, I only have a blog. Eventually I do plan on having a web site as well, but for now I can be found at http://www.donnabsnow.blogspot.com/.

So here’s a little bit about Daffodils and Dance of a Lifetime!

High school sweethearts...I think we all remember that perfect couple. Everyone just knew they would make it, they would be together forever. I had friends like that in college. They were perfect for each other. Started as high school sweethearts, and yup, 30 years later, they're still together.

But what about the ones that didn't make it...the ones that broke up and went their separate ways. How many of them realized later in life that they missed their one and only - let the love of a lifetime get away. Would they grab a second chance if they had it?

Here’s a peek at Daffodils. It’s all about second chances...

Margaret Ellington and Lukas North have a history to resolve. He's determined to reclaim the love he threw away ten years earlier. She’s afraid to let her heart be broken again.

When the past repeats itself, can there be a different outcome?

Excerpt:

After dinner, everyone headed for their vehicles while Margaret smiled and waved her thanks. Once again, Lukas stood at her side, his shoulder brushing against hers as he smiled and waved alongside her as if they had both moved.

She took a deep breath and turned to him, studying his face as the last of the vehicles pulled out onto the street. Soft brown hair fell into his eyes, reminding her of the boy she once loved. She fisted her hand to keep from brushing it back for him like she had done so many times in the past.

Returning her look, Lukas took both her hands in his strong ones, smoothing her fist. He lifted a knuckle to her cheekbone, the gesture melting a small piece of her heart.

She had to remind herself his sympathy was ten years too late.

“I wish I could change the past, that things could have been different a long time ago.”

Margaret looked down at their hands and folded her fingers over his. She couldn’t deal with that discussion now…maybe ever. “We can’t change history. Ten years ago you made your choices.” She shrugged, holding herself stiff, her voice flat. “Let’s not dredge it up now. We were just kids.” She couldn’t go there. She would shatter if the wrong words were spoken. Dear Lord, give me strength. You promised not to give me more than I can handle, Lord. Well, I’m nearly there. Please…She turned away, blinking back tears.

http://www.whiterosepublishing.com/Daffodils

I wandered a little off the beaten path when I heard there was a publisher looking for stories about dancing. No, I'm not a dancer, never been a dancer, never wished I was a dancer (ok, so maybe I wished it...), never knew any professional dancers...but it just so happens that I wrote a short story to enter in a contest last year - about a dancer. Of course, I never entered it because by the time I finished writing I decided I wanted to make it into a full length story some day. And then I saw the call for an anthology about dancers and it nudged my memory.

So here it is!

Dances with Fireworks is a collection of 5 short stories celebrating romance and the love of dance. So here's a little blurb from Dance of a Lifetime - my short in this anthology:

She should have left right after the funeral. But she couldn’t bear to think of dancing without Chris. He should have been there practicing with her, facing her at every turn, laughing at her foibles, rubbing the aches out of her feet when they were done.

“You need to take some time off,” Cody answered as he pulled her close again and rubbed her back. “He was your brother! They can’t expect you to step out on a stage just a month later.”

“You’ve heard the mantra,” she said softly as she eased away from him. “The show must go on.”

“So let it go on without you! Don’t you have an understudy? Obviously if they’re ready to start rehearsals they must have one for Chris’ part.”

“Of course they do. But if I don’t dance in this show I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back.”

“They wouldn’t blackball you because of this!”

She shook her head and looked away then back. “Not them, me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to… to start over without him. If I don’t get right back out there, I don’t know if I’ll ever find the courage.”

Cody stared into her eyes for a moment then slid his hands down her arms and sat back on his heels. “I saw you together in The Nutcracker last Christmas.”

Her head shot up. “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming, that you were there? How …when …?”

He touched her cheek and pushed a strand of her long blond hair behind her ear. “I knew you were in it. I’ve known about every show you’ve been in since you left.”

“Why?”

He stopped stroking her hair and looked straight into her soul. “Because I loved you.”

Dancing with Fireworks can be found at https://www.xoxopublishing.com/shop-online/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=32&products_id=195

Love, Sam Finals for 2012 EPIC e-Book Award

2011-09-25T16:26:00.000-05:00

Love, Sam has finaled for a 2012 EPIC eBook Award! Winners will be announced at the EPIC Conference in March, 2012.

I am thrilled to be among the finalists (and I sure would like to fill in that empty spot on my mantle with a nice, shiny award :)

Linda

Author Spotlight - Annabel Aidan

2011-09-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

Today's spotlight is on multi-published author
Annabel Aidan.

1. Every author I’ve met has their own unique story of how they found their way into writing. What path led you to become a multi-published author?

I’ve been writing since I was about six years old. I always loved it. I was always writing stories and plays as a child. Once in college, I got away from it for awhile, when I got into film and theatre production, and I spent many years working backstage. I started writing audition monologues for actress friends, because they were having trouble finding good material. That expanded into scenes and plays, and then I went back to writing prose. Eventually, I had to make the decision between staying in backstage work and writing. I chose writing.

2. You publish under at least six pseudonyms and in various genres. Can you tell us a bit about each of your writing personalities and their work?

Annabel Aidan – romantic/paranormal suspense

Devon Ellington – sports (both fiction & non-fiction), most of the articles and interviews, teaching, urban fantasy, mystery, some fantasy

Ava Dunne – romantic comedy

Cerridwen Iris Shea – tarot, runes, esoterica, herbalism, aromatherapy, fantasy, magical realism, paranormal (I wrote for Llewellyn Worldwide for 16 years under this name)

Jenny Storm – YA, YA mystery

Christiane Van de Velde – house & hearth essays, articles, novels

Christy Miller (sometimes Christy Garnet Miller)– literary fiction, mostly short stories

3. You’ve got to be one of the busiest women in writing. In addition to writing under several pseudonyms, you also offer workshops. How do you keep yourself and your work organized? What’s your writing style—plotter or pantser?

The more contracts I land, the more I’ve learned how important it is to outline. I don’t create prisons, just list possibilities. I jot down a few ideas, write three or four chapters into the piece, and then sit down and do a rough outline. That way, when I sit down in the morning, I can just pick up with the next scene, instead of wondering where I meant to go.

I’m very dependent on my calendar to keep all my deadlines straight. Once something is contracted, it goes in the calendar, and then I work backwards from there. I don’t do daily To-Do lists. I keep a rough idea of what gets done and then do it.

I like large swaths of uninterrupted and unstructured work time. If there are lists and schedules and the day is micro-managed, I get resentful and don’t do anything. It’s too much like working in an office. I made a choice not to work in someone else’s office, so why would I put myself on that same type of negative schedule?

4. What aspect of the writing process to you enjoy the most? What part of the process do you dread?

I love the actual writing process. I love to sit down and create. First drafts are wonderful, even when they’re difficult. I enjoy editing a lot – I believe in cutting. The red machete is my best friend.

The hardest part are the final galleys. When I hit “send”, I’m always slightly nauseous, worried that I missed something!

5. Can you tell us a little about your most recent book?

In ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT, released in both print and digital formats by Champagne Books, witchcraft, politics, and theatre collide and combine as Morag D’Anneville and Secret Service agent Simon Keane fight to protect the Vice President of the United States -- or is it Morag who needs Simon’s protection more than the VP?

Witch and theatre professional Morag D’Anneville is annoyed when she’s assigned to dress the conservative Vice President as he makes a surprise appearance in his favorite Broadway show. Even more irritating, she has to teach Agent Simon Keane, part of the security detail, the backstage ropes in preparation. A strong attraction flares between them which they both recognize is doomed, and Simon must also fight his superior’s prejudice that Morag’s beliefs make her a threat to the Vice President. When Morag is attacked, Simon’s loyalties are torn between protecting the man he’s sworn to protect, and protecting the woman he loves.

6. What can readers expect in the coming months?

I’m working on the next romantic suspense under the Annabel Aidan name, THE SPIRIT REPOSITORY. The protagonist in that book is Bonnie, a minor character in ASSUMPTION, who helps an attractive man when someone is “stealing” the ghosts of his ancestors from his bookshop. I’m negotiating for a new publisher for the urban fantasy Jain Lazarus Adventures (the previous publisher went out of business), and I’ve got several other books either on submission or about to go on submission. It will be interesting to see what lands where!

7. Where can you be found on the web? (web site, blogs, social network links)

My blog on the writing life is Ink in My Coffee, under the Devon Ellington name, at http://devonellington.wordpress.com/

There’s an Annabel Aidan web page on the Devon Ellington website: www.devonellingtonwork.com/annabelaidan.html

The Devon Ellington site also has a workshop page, listing where I’ll be teaching, both in person and online: www.devonellingtonwork.com/workshops.html.

You can find me on Twitter at @DevonEllington.
Keep in touch! There’s always something going on!

Buy Links:

Direct Buy digital link:

http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=497

Direct buy print link:

http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=470

Amazon Kindle Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Assumption-Of-Right-ebook/dp/B0054LO02Y

Bio:

Annabel Aidan writes romantic suspense with a hint of magic. She publishes under a half a dozen names in both fiction and nonfiction. She spent over twenty years working behind the scenes on Broadway, in film and television, mostly working wardrobe. Her plays are produced in New York, London, Edinburgh, and Australia. If you run towards her undoing buttons, she will tear off your clothes and flip you into something else — and then read your tarot cards.

In Defense of Women's Fiction

2011-09-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

I've been reading a lot lately on blogs about Women's Fiction--both pro and con. Not for or against the books themselves, but the term in particular. Women's Fiction was, initially, an umbrella term encompassing writing that targeted women readers, stories that would primarily appeal to women. It also included chick lit and romance. As a female reader and then writer, I gladly embraced the term. If I wanted to find a book that would provide a good story about a female heroine overcoming some obstacle, finding her own inner strength, and succeeding with or without a man in her life, I knew exactly where to look.

As a budding author and former psychotherapist, I found a niche for my writing--stories featuring heroines older than thirty who stand strong in the face of adversity. And, yes, some of them do find a romance along the way. But its not integral to their story.

Now I'm reading about authors, some of whom are well-established, who run from the term 'Women's Fiction' like someone dropped it in an outhouse at the county fair. One argument is that there is no genre titled 'Men's Fiction'. Okay, that's true. We tend to think of men as being drawn toward police drama, mystery, sci-fi, and some literary drama. And the shouts of 'sexism' rise.

Why? Sci-fi isn't only for scientists. Paranormal isn't geared toward an audience of vampires and ghosts. Law enforcement and criminals aren't the intended audience for police dramas. Okay, I'm being facetious.

Seriously, why has Women's Fiction as a genre term taken on such a negative value? I read a lot of different genres. Not only because they're entertaining, but because as an author, I need to have a diverse reading base. There was a time when some readers and authors alike would refer to romance novels as those heaving bosom books that denigrate women. Now romance in all its sub-genres has risen to a new height of respect among readership. Is Women's Fiction the new pariah?

I admit to a certain confusion in the publishing industry. I'm published with three publishers. One classifies my books as Women's Fiction and the other two as Mainstream Fiction. One actually lists what I submitted as Women's Fiction under Mainstream Romance.

I'm proud to say I write Women's Fiction and I love the feedback I receive from the women who read my books. I was approached by a man at a book fair who picked up one of my books and asked, "What kind of books are these?" I said, "Women's Fiction." He set the book down like it had burst into flames and said, "Oh, women's stories." Unoffended, I smiled and said, "My books are about women and are stories women would enjoy, but they're also stories from which men can learn." He bought a book for his wife, then asked, "So, should I read it first?" I thought that might be a good idea and told him so.

My point here--Women's Fiction is no more only for women than, as I said, Sci-fi is for scientists and Paranormal is for vampires and ghosts. If we can only get past the semantics.

What about you? Does the title Women's Fiction offend your senses and stop you from picking up a book in that category?

Linda

We Remember

2011-09-10T13:27:00.000-05:00

On this September 11, ten years later, we remember with heavy hearts...

We grieve all we have lost...

We pray for a future with peace...

Mega Contest at The Writers Vineyard

2011-08-31T21:11:00.000-05:00

The authors at The Writers Vineyard are holding a

Mega contest to give away over twenty of

their top rated novels.

From September 5 through November 28, we will hold a drawing every Monday. The post for each Monday will announce which book is being given away, the rules, and who won the prior week. Come join us. Lots of ways to win, and while you're there, scan through our posts. We discuss the good, bad, and ugly of writing and the publishing experience.

http://thewritersvineyard.com/

The Passing of an E-publishing Pioneer

2011-08-25T20:07:00.001-05:00

I'm very sad to announce the passing of Lorraine Stephens. Lorraine was a pioneer in e-publishing and one of the co-owners/founders of Wings ePress in 2001. Lorraine passed away on Wednesday, August 24. Those of us who got our start in publishing with Wings ePress will remember Lorraine for her openness, her generosity, and her talent.

May she rest in peace.

My New Cover Art for Reinventing Christmas

2011-08-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

I just received the cover art for my contemporary romance novel, Reinventing Christmas, that will be published by Champagne Books this coming December. Once again, cover artist Trisha FitzGerald did an amazing job. Reinventing Christmas is a sweet romance that is sure to warm your heart this Christmas.

Linda

Author Spotlight - K.D. Pitner

2011-08-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

This month's
Author Spotlight
shines on
debut novelist,
K.D. Pitner.

Why I Write

When I was a child, my mother told me I should be a great many things, primarily a lawyer because of how I liked to argue with her and remind her that I had rights, but also a writer because I used to tell her stories that explained how she came to be my mother and why I decided I should give up my heavenly perch to be her child. My imagination was vivid from the beginning. As I grew older, I became one of those teenagers that most parents warn their “good” children about, the one who wandered through cemeteries, writing bad, or at the very least, dark poetry, and shunning the conformists because they could not see the real beauty of this world through their shackles of rules and mores.

At this same time, I had an English teacher who required us to keep a journal. We could write about anything we wanted. We could complain about having to write or we could write poetry and stories – anything as long as we were writing. I wrote poems at first but then I decided to try my hand at a story. I loved romance novels and had recently been turned onto the paranormal subgenre of romance so I wrote a ghost love story. It was quite possibly the worst thing I had ever written. No one will ever read it – not even my kids. In fact, I have left my daughter instructions to burn that journal upon my demise. It was that bad.

The next year, I had a new English teacher, Mrs. Smith, who I had worked with the previous year in drama club. She had heard about my horrible story but told me I needed to write her short story based on a time in my life. The trick was it had to be at least 750 words – a mere 750 words! I say that now but at the time it was more like “750 WORDS! Are you kidding me? I can’t write that much!”

A week later, she gave me the story back with enough red marks on it so that it looked like a murder scene rather than a short story. At the very top was the note every student dreads – “Please see me after class”. I sank down into my chair and pretended to be invisible until the bell rang and then slowly I made my way to her desk to see what I had done that was so awful. She explained that she had really enjoyed my story but that I abused commas more than any person she had ever seen. If I could correct my egregious comma abuse and rephrase a few sentences she had been so thoughtful as to underline, she wanted to submit my story to Scholastic magazine for consideration. So I did as she asked and she submitted it as she promised.

The magazine did not choose my story but it was enough for me to keep on writing. Someone liked it. Someone read it and did not promptly say “Burn this and never speak of it again!” So I kept writing. I cranked out 750 words; a book could not possibly be that hard, right?

Fastforward twenty years to August 2011.

My novel, Darker Shades of Midnight, has just been released. It was built around different scenes I wrote in that journal twenty years ago. The story is a historic paranormal romance about Adrian, a centuries old vampire who is haunted by the memory of his mortal life, and Gabriella, an orphan who grows up to discover that she is royalty. Adrian rescued Gabriella from certain death and raised her as his own daughter, who she strongly resembles. When the time comes for Gabriella to marry, she realizes that she is in love with Adrian but believes he only feels toward her like a father would his daughter. While watching her grow into a woman has been a privilege, now he must protect her from an abusive husband and from his maker. More importantly, he must protect her from the feelings that her presence has stirred to life deep within his heart.

Writing has been the one thing I have in which I can completely lose myself. My characters all take on traits of me, good or bad, and Gabriella even shared my birth date because it was easier to keep up with her age if we were the same age exactly. There are a few authors who have impacted me, such as Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Maggie Shayne, and Dan Simmons. I get inspiration when I read their work because it moves me. It makes me feel and when I finish a book by them, I want to be able to make people feel too. Hopefully, I have accomplished that in this novel. As for now, I’m going to keep writing and see what comes up.

* * *
K.D. Pitner lives in the beautiful, scenic Tennessee Valley with her husband and two children. From the age of two, K.D. entertained family members with her stories, often explaining the intricacies of Heaven and how she came to be here on Earth with her parents.

When not writing, she also enjoys gardening, playing the piano and violin, and doting over her four legged babies. She is the human mother of a very co-dependent kitten named after one of her favorite authors, Ernest Hemmingway.

Visit http://www.champagnebooks.com/ to get a copy of her debut novel Darker Shades of Midnight. You can keep up with what K.D. is doing by visiting her website http://kdpitner.bravesites.com/

Buy Link

Birthday Scavenger Hunt

2011-07-31T22:58:00.001-05:00

August is my birthday month! What better way to celebrate than to give gifts away to my readers? So I'm hosting a Birthday Scavenger Hunt contest on my website all month, with a new treasure to find each week.

Jump over to my Contest page on my website for the details, then get hunting.

Prizes include t-shirts, mousepads, tote bags, hats, notebooks with pens,

keychains, and even books.

Well, what are you waiting for?

I'm not getting any younger here. Click below.

Birthday Scavenger Hunt Contest

NOW THERE ARE TWO EXCERPTS WAITING TO BE FOUND!

Linda

What do you pack for vacation?

2011-07-29T12:12:00.002-05:00

It's vacation time. Most of us have a variety of equipment that we rely on daily--laptops, iPads, iPods, iPhones--aye, aye aye. I've had the experience of dragging along a wheeled computer bag that weighed almost as much as the luggage I checked for a flight. And then I had to try to jam it under an airplane seat because I knew lifting it overhead would be a struggle. What was it filled with? My electronics and communication equipment. All that stuff I believe I simply cannot live without for more than twenty-four hours. (Twenty-four hours? Let's try four hours.)

I recently left town for a one-day workshop that required an overnight stay. I broke into a cold sweat as I weighed out whether or not to take along my mini-notebook. I was going to be in a workshop the full next day, then driving four hours to return home. I would have a few hours in the evening after arriving at the hotel, but would be having dinner and meeting up with a few friends. Could I really not live without checking email for one night? With trembling hands, I removed the notebook from my travel bag and set it aside.

I know, most of you can check your email anywhere from your iPhone or a similar phone. I've deliberately avoided having that feature or the texting feature on my phone. My phone is just that--a phone with voicemail.

I've lived long enough to remember the old, ugly black dial telephone that was tethered to the wall, usually in a central place in the house. One phone and you had to stand or sit right there to use it. I'm all for techno advances, and I love carrying a cell phone that makes instant contact convenient. I sometimes wonder how I managed without one. What did I do years ago when the car broke down along the highway? And what might have happened if I could have multi-tasked and taken care of business while doing other things--like driving? I could be a millionaire today. (Okay, I'm being facetious.)

I learned something, however, from my brief freedom from my laptop. I learned how dependent I've become on having an immediate cyber-connection to my friends, family, and the rest of the world. As an author, I'm certainly dependent on my devices to capture those fleeting but brilliant thoughts that pop into my head.

Now I'm looking at planning a vacation later in the year. The decision looms: What to pack, and what to leave behind? Is it really a vacation if I drag a laptop along so I can work? Will my friends or family post an obituary if they don't hear from me for a week?

I'm curious. How do you determine what to take along on vacation and what to leave behind? Can we literally live without electronics for a week, or are we just as tethered to our wireless devices as we once were to that old, ugly wall-bound telephone?

Linda

Shutting Down (just for a day)

2011-07-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

Every so often, we just have to shut down, step away from the laptop, and recharge. I'll be spending this Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama with the Southern Magic RWA group for a workshop presented by Margie Lawson.

I'm looking forward to the time with other writers and Margie's presentation. See y'all on Sunday!

Linda

Author Spotlight - Allison Knight

2011-07-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

Today's post is the first of my new monthly feature called The Author Spotlight. Today's spotlight shines on author Allison Knight.

Years ago, my little sister and I played opera. So what on earth does that have to do with being a writer? Why, I was into pretend. Of course, I was always the heroine. As I grew, I read. One of my greatest joys was sneaking off to a private corner where I could read. Once a week, we'd go to the public library and during those years I read every Cherry Ames Nurse books. Okay, so right away you can tell I went for romantic stories.

It was about then I began to write, at first poetry. In the eighth grade, one of the local organizations offered a scholarship award, a whole fifty dollars, based on the best essay. I abandoned poetry and turn to writing essays. I won the scholarship and I knew then I would be a writer. The question - what would I write - never entered my mind. I would be a writer. I do have to smile though, remembering my college English professor. Nothing about my writing ability pleased her. In fact, if I remember correctly, she begrudgingly gave me a "C-" for a final class grade.

After college, I began to teach, and met the love of my life, married and began our family. I discovered the romance genre. I found I loved the feel good, happy endings you always got with romances. One day I began a book which became the genesis for my passion to write historical romances. The book was well written - I thought. But I found problems with the book. The heroine's eyes changed color twice. A mother-in-law who played a small part disappeared, never to be heard from again. An important character suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and I remember thinking at the time, where did he come from. I sat in our bedroom, my reading corner and stared at that book. I just knew I could do a better job.

I dragged out the typewriter and announced I was going to write a book. My children thought it was hilarious and my daughter told me, "Oh, yea, Mom. When cows fly."

My husband didn't crack a smile, bless his heart. He built a place in the basement of our home so I had a special place to write. When I started having trouble planning the action, he suggested I plot the story out using a time line. He even supplied the paper. When I sold my first books I came home from school to find a stuffed toy cow, adorned with a set of wings flying around the family room attached to our ceiling fan. It seemed "Cows could fly." I dedicated that first book to my children, telling them to look up.

I've learned a lot over the years but I do believe if I hadn't read so much and didn't love books, I would never have tried to write. And I found you can never learn too much. If you don't continue to grow, to develop, to improve, you can not succeed. Looking at each of my seventeen books I can truthfully say, I have learned, I have grown, I have improved. Am I finished developing, learning? Nope, not a chance. There's still a lot more to learn.

Buy Link

Award winning author, Allison Knight began her writing career like many other authors. She read a book she didn’t like and knew she could do a better job. Since that time, Allison has written and published seventeen romances for both paperback and digital publishers. Her third medieval romance from her 'song' series is at the publisher awaiting approval. A digital short story is scheduled for release in December 2011.
Because she loves to share her knowledge and her love of romance novels she often blogs with other authors. She also loves to talk about the growing digital market.

You can find her at:

http://www.allisonknight.com/

http://www.allisonknight.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/AuthorAllisonKnight

She blogs once a month for The Writers' Vineyard, http://thewritersvineyard.com/

A Letter to Congress

2011-07-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

A Letter to Congress

July 4, 2011

Dear Senators and Representatives,

Happy Independence Day! As I’ve watched the Fourth of July celebrations from various parts of the country, listened to speeches about our hard-won freedoms and to songs, old and new, that sing to that freedom, I find myself often in tears. And I wonder what that’s about. I’m not that easily moved to tears.

For some time, I have found myself feeling less than hopeful about the way decisions are made by all of you and how those decisions continue to impact the people like me. I’m not a politician, and I won’t pretend to know the dynamics that go into the making of a politician. I have great respect for anyone who dedicates his or her life to serving, whether it is in politics or in some other area, based upon the belief that he or she will make a positive difference.

In my own frustrations over the state of our country, I have been one of those who make sarcastic jokes or laughed at your missteps and foibles at times. For that, I apologize. However, with that apology comes an expectation.

I have learned, on a much simpler plane, the value of open discourse and common purpose when it comes to making decisions of import. It saddens me to see members of Congress dig in their heels in the name of party line, rather than sit up, enter into the open discourse with an open mind, and show a willingness to make decisions that will favorably impact the people of this country they serve.

Every day, I am confronted by people, citizens of this country, who barely have enough to put food on their tables, maintain shelter, and cloth their children. I watch the costs of medical care rise and see people who have no access to treatments and medications they need. I see how much there is ‘not enough’. I look back fifty years to a time when I would never have imagined this America. I see these people losing their homes, their families—they are the new face of America. And it frightens me.

I’m one person with one vote. A right that, again, was hard-won, particularly for women. I’m one person who may not be all that well educated about the workings of government (my own fault). I’m one person to whom you have each pledged your service. I’m proud to be an American, and I wouldn’t trade my citizenship for anything.

My expectation is this: that you put aside your party politics and get back in touch with why you have chosen this course for your life. I don’t think any of you sat down one day and said, “I’m going to be a politician so I can conquer the opposing party and reign supreme.” I think you’ve chosen your path out of a true desire to keep this country great. I believe you are each motivated by good hearts and good will.

On this Independence Day, I’ve heard a lot of talk about remembering. Remembering where we came from. Remembering the struggles we have endured. Remembering the gift of freedom we hold dear. Remembering those who have fought and continue to fight for those freedoms.

Today, I’m asking you to remember and to be guided, not by taking sides, but by that desire that once drew you to serve the people and preserve the integrity of our country.

Respectfully,

Linda Rettstatt

Happy Fourth of July

2011-07-04T14:30:00.001-05:00

Happy Independence Day!

I got nostalgic this morning, thinking about Fourth of July celebrations in my youth. I grew up in a small town in southwestern Pennsylvania--Brownsville, to be exact. I remember the parade that came through town and ended at the Little League baseball field, right across the street from my house. I always thought it was really cool to be able to sit on your own front porch and watch the parade. Of course, we always anticipated the moment when my dad, an Army reservist, would march by and we would cheer loudly.

Then the baseball games would commence. People parked their cars everywhere, and no one got a ticket. It was a town celebration. My dad would fire up the old kettle charcoal grill while we kids splashed in the inflatable pool that held no more than eighteen inches of water. He would stop grilling long enough to turn on the water hose and create an arc of cool water for us to run through (we didn't have lawn sprinklers.)

After a dinner of hot dogs, homemade potato salad, baked beans and ice cream for dessert, we would all pack into cars driven by Dad or Pappy, and head for the community park and the fireworks display. There was nothing like sitting on a blanket on the hood of the car, oooing and aaahing with just about everyone in town as colors burst overhead.

Then we'd join the slow caravan of vehicles out of the park, through town and back at home where we could usually convince my mother to give us more ice cream before bed. Cradling a bowl in our laps, my sister and I would sit on the top porch step and listen to the adults talk about their Fourth of July memories--not all that different from the ones we were creating at that moment.

It didn't occur to me at the time that my own father fought in WWII in the name of the freedom we celebrated.

Let's take time today, away from the food and the fun, to remember those who have and who continue to serve in the name of freedom.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July.

Linda

An Interview With Two Real Characters

2011-07-02T18:28:00.003-05:00

I thought it would be fun to post an interview with two real characters from Shooting Into the Sun--Rylee Morgan and her sister, Lexie. Well, Rylee is the focus of the interview. But, as you can see, Lexie just cannot contain herself.

Interview with Photographer Rylee Morgan

Interviewer: Today I’m interviewing nature photographer Rylee Morgan. She’s preparing a show at a local gallery and has just returned from a cross-country trip on a photo assignment to capture The Faces of America for noted photo book publisher, Paul Devonshire. As a bonus, Rylee is accompanied by her younger sister, Lexie. Welcome, ladies.

R: Thank you. Lexie will be sitting in to see how an interview is conducted, but she’s promised not to interrupt. (casts a serious glance at Lexie)

Int: Well, it’s a pleasure to have both of you here. So, Rylee, how did you get interested in photography as a career?

R: I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was four years old.

L: Our father taught Rylee to take pictures before he… (trails off at Rylee’s glance her way)

Int: So, your father taught you the craft, Rylee?

R: Yes. I then went on to study photography and actually teach some classes at the Art Institute in Pittsburgh. It’s been interesting to watch the shift from film to digital.

Int: And this new project you just completed. Tell us how this came about.

R: Paul Devonshire needed three photographers to capture photos for his new publication, The Faces of America. I took the toughest assignment to travel up north to the Michigan peninsula, down through the Grand Canyon, and to the Pacific Coast and Yosemite National Park. It was an amazing adventure.

L: Especially after we picked up Josh.

Int: Josh?

L: He was a hitchhiker going our way. Rylee had a rule about no hitchhikers, but he seemed harmless enough. Rylee has rules about everything. (rolls her eyes)

R: The point is, the trip turned out to be both business and…er…vacation.

L: Pleasure. (murmured with a smile)

R: Excuse me. (turns to Lexie) What did we discuss before we came in here?

L: (makes zipping motion across lips and sits back in chair)

R: I’m sorry. You were asking about the photo trip. It afforded an opportunity to see places I’ve never seen and meet people from other parts of the country.

L: Like hunky doctors. (whispered)

R: (shoots Lexie a warning look, then continues) It also gave me a chance to search for our father. He left when I was twelve years of age and Lexie was only four.

Int: Did you find him?

L: You’d be surprised at all Rylee found on this trip (spoken with eyebrows raised). I hardly recognize her now. She has a permanent smile plastered on her face. (glances at Rylee, who is glowering) Well, almost always.

Int: I see. Well, I’d love to know more about the reason for that. Rylee?

* * * * *

And if you’d like to know more about Rylee’s trip to find her father, the hitchhiker she meets along the way, and the smile on her face, get your copy of Shooting Into the Sun today.

Available now at Champagne Books and at Amazon for Kindle

The Ups and Downs of Writing

2011-06-25T13:30:00.001-05:00

As with most endeavors, writing has its ups and downs. We authors are told we must have a thick skin and must be able to let the harsh criticisms of our work roll off our backs. That can be easier said than done. But it doesn't mean we don't have to find a way to put the possibly harsh critiques and reviews of our work into perspective.

Every author wants a sterling five-star review of his or her book. Naturally. I've yet to meet an author who would say, "If I get three stars on this one, I'll be happy." And we revel in the four- and five-star reviews, the ones that tout our book as brilliant or a must-read.

But how do we handle the other reviews--the ones from readers/reviewers who find our book to be less than entertaining or engaging, possibly even poorly written? Our human tendency is to react out of hurt and shame and with anger and indignation. "How dare that reviewer say such a thing about my book!" It's as if the reviewer said, "Hey, lady, you sure have an ugly baby there."

Developing that thick skin can be a challenge, and often the thick skin is nothing more than an outer cover, a mask to hide the hurt we feel. As professionals, we have to find a way to maintain a balance and to keep things in perspective. I give serious consideration to every critique, every reader feedback, and every review, whether it's a standing ovation for my work or a less than enthusiastic one-handed clap. As a writer, I'm always learning--at least I hope I am. I can learn from the negative feedback as well as from the positive. It's just not as much fun. Are reviewers always right? No, it's a very subjective business. But if they're right just once and, by taking that negativity, I can strengthen my future writing, I win in the end.

Admittedly, there is a difference between a 'bad' or 'negative' review and a slice'n'dice job that's close to being a personal attack on the author. Reviewers have to keep perspective and balance, as well. But I believe that any of us who put our work out there for public consumption and then don't consider the good AND the bad of public feedback does ourself and our future work a disservice.

We can smile at the great reviews and frown over the less enchanting feedback, but it's all a part of this profession we call writing.

In Memory of My Dad

2011-06-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

No matter how old I get, there are still days that stir fond memories from my childhood. My father, Dale Rettstatt, Jr., (nicknamed Sonny) passed away in 1981 at the age of fifty-nine. It's hard to believe it's been thirty years.

As we celebrate Father's Day, I take time to enjoy some memories of my dad. Mostly I remember him as a quiet, constant presence with a dry sense of humor. According to his high school yearbook, he wanted to be an engineer and to build airplanes. He became a soldier who served in WWII and received a Purple Heart for injuries during battle in France. He was a dedicated husband and father, never quite achieving his high school dream. Still, he worked hard to provide for his family, and did so without complaint.

He was in the high school band and played clarinet. He also loved playing cards and, suprisingly enough, creating paint-by-number paintings. I didn't think much about it at the time, but now reflect on the ways my dad tried to feed his creative spirit. Maybe that's where I get this passion for music, photography, and writing--the need to create.

My father was not a very communicative man. I wonder what he was like before he experienced the ravages of war at such a young age. But the man I knew as Daddy was quiet, sometimes brooding (though he did experience headaches from the shrapnel that remained in his head following the war). But he was 'there'. Always. To play ball in the backyard. To take me and my four girlfriends to see the Beatles movie, Help, at a drive-in theater because none of us could drive yet. (More than should be asked of any man!) To teach me to drive. To keep my car in good repair. To help me move out of my parents' house when I thought I was ready for the move. And to help me move back in a year later when I discovered I wasn't quite ready.

He didn't generally refer to my sister or me by our names. If a phone call came, he would shout, "Hey, you. Telephone." If the wrong daughter responded, he'd say, "Not you, the other one." Got so we signed his birthday cards from Hey You and The Other One.

The last time I saw my dad was the day before he died. I had taken a bus home from Pittsburgh for the weekend. He drove me to the bus station on Sunday before he went to work his shift. He lingered at the bus station with me, even though I told him I'd be fine (knowing he needed to get to work). We didn't talk, but he kept asking me if I needed any money--to which I said, "No, I'm okay." It was as if he did not want to leave.

But he left the next evening because of a massive heart attack. Medically speaking, my father had a bad heart. But my Dad had a great heart, a generous heart, the heart of a hero.

Here's to you, Daddy. Happy Father's Day.

The Other One

Outside the Lines

2011-06-10T11:30:00.004-05:00

I awoke this morning and, once my vision focused, gazed across the room at the framed photograph on the far wall. It’s a picture I took when I was more engaged in outdoor photography some years ago. I captured the sunset off Norfolk Harbor (Virginia) while on a dinner cruise. And I experienced a flashback to an arts and crafts fair where I had set up a booth to sell my matted photo prints.

A man came by and flipped through the selections, holding up the print of the sunset. He studied it for a moment and then asked, “May I say something about this photograph?”

“Sure,” I said. He then went on to tell me everything that I’d done wrong in shooting that photo—the horizon is almost dead center and, according to my self-appointed critic, you never center the horizon. (I knew that rule.) You never shoot directly into the sun because you will get sun spots. (I knew that rule, too). The picture is bland because there is not much variation in colors—it’s all orange and brown. (I could see that.)

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve studied photography and just want to be helpful,” he said.

“Thank you," I said, "but I actually love this picture.”

When I look at this picture, I don’t see a photo of the sunset over the water, with the horizon almost dead center (violating some precious rule). I see a variation in color and tone and shading. I see the orange stream of light the sun sends across the water and pulls the photo together. I see the beauty that can be captured by daring to step outside the bounds of ‘the rules.’ This picture greets me every morning, like a kiss from God.

Was I irritated by his presumption? Yes. Did I let his ‘suggestions’ change the way I approached photography? No. One might ask, "Why not?" After all, he studied the rules.

I used to always meticulously color inside the lines. And I rarely ever had purple grass or a green sun or an orange apple in any of the heavily outlined pictures in my childhood coloring books. Every color was as it should have been and nothing breached the boundary lines on the picture.

As I learned the rules for life, I approached them much the same way. Whose rules? Well, those of my parents, my teachers, my culture. But one day when I was in my twenties, something amazing happened. A friend invited me outside the lines—and I dared to accept. Wow—there was a whole new world out there. A world where I could be creative and innovative and paint in any colors I wanted. And nothing bad happened. Good things actually happened. I was filled a new energy and passion.

I’m not talking legal lines here. (Well, not for the most part. It was the seventies.) I’m talking music, photography, and the inner freedom that comes with experimenting and bending the ‘rules’ and daring to create something new. Even becoming something new. A musician friend, when hearing a composition I’d finished, said, “You don’t want to end a song on a minor chord.” I said, “But that’s where this song ends.” And it did, and it worked. For me. It turned out to be the favorite song of many on the ensuing recording that included my music and hers.

When I began to write novels, I was fortunate enough to not know all the rules involved. I knew rules for spelling, grammar, and punctuation, of course. But none of the rules of plot development, characterization, point of view… I just wrote. I wrote what I felt in my heart, what I heard in my head, and what spilled out from this new passion I’d discovered. Writing. That first book finaled for an award, as have two others since. But that's not the point. It's not about gaining awards. It's about the deep satisfaction that comes from the creative process.

This morning as I stared at the imperfect photograph of the sunset on Norfolk Harbor, several threads of a tapestry wove together. That gravitational pull I felt years ago to step outside the lines and give my creative passion free reign. The daring to compose music that came from my soul and may have stretched the boundaries of the rules of composition. And it all culminated in my eighth published novel, Shooting Into the Sun.

Read an Excerpt

I’ve known this book is my favorite (don’t tell the other kids), but I’ve not been certain why that is. Now I’m certain. Because in that book, I have bared my own struggle in Rylee’s journey to get free of her self-constructed boundaries. And in Rylee’s coming to terms with the way her choices have kept her safe and her life orderly, she is free to color outside those lines and create something new. And, when she does, she is surprised to find that the world doesn’t end.

We don’t usually come to terms with these issues in our twenties or even our thirties. We’re generally too busy living life and still building the life we desire. But, if we’re lucky, at some point (and this often occurs for women when we hit forty-five and older) we feel that tug toward something more, something deeper within ourselves. And if we’re smart, we go with it.

Embrace your passion to be creative!

Linda

Reaching the End of the Alphabet

2011-06-04T08:54:00.001-05:00

Last week, we reached the end of the alphabet and the last posting for The Writer's Alphabet blog series. This week I just want to list for you the excellent writers who participated in this blog over the past months and their websites. Please visit their web pages and take a look at their books.

To these writers, I say, "Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and experience. You've given us all new building blocks for our own writing."

In order of appearance, they are:

Angelica Hart and Zi
http://www.angelicahartandzi.com/

Mary McCall
http://www.marymccall.net/

A.J. Maguire
http://ajmaguire.webs.com/

Jim Woods
http://users.dakotacom.net/~jwoods

Karyn Lyndon
http://www.karynlyndon.blogspot.com/

Therese Kinkaide
http://www.theresekinkaide.com/

Celia Yeary
http://www.celiayeary.com/

Claudy Conn
http://www.claudyconn.embarqspace.com/

Judy Griffith Gill
http://www.judygill.com/

K.D. Pitner
http://kdpitner.webs.com/

Kimberley Dehn
http://kdpitner.webs.com/

Billie Williams
http://www.billiewilliams.com/

Fiona McGier
http://www.fionamcgier.com/

Carol McPhee
http://carolmcphee.webs.com/

Jane Toombs
http://www.janetoombs.com/

Elaine Cantrell
http://www.elainecantrell.com/

Allison Knight
http://www.allisonknight.com/

Lynn Romaine
http://www.lynnromaine.com/

Camille Cavanagh
http://www.camillecavanagh.com/wordpress/

Angela Verdenius
http://www.angelaverdenius.com/

Lauren Gallagher/L.A. Witt
http://www.loriawitt.com/

Cindy K. Green
http://www.cindykgreen.com/

Judith Leger
http://www.judithleger.weebly.com/

Z is for...

2011-05-26T20:48:00.000-05:00

We've reached the end of the alphabet. You might wonder how a writer would handle the letter 'Z' in relation to any aspect of writing. Well, author Judith Leger has no problem giving us something to think about as she shares her insight into Z's place in the alphabet and the importance of zest in writing.
~ * ~
Hi Linda, thanks so much for letting me guest with the letter Z. Did you know that Z is not really a letter? Yeah, I know. How is it possible for someone to say, out with the Z, and completely remove it from the alphabet? The slanted letter was so rarely used that Roman Censor Appius Claudius Caecus got rid of it. Why have it if it's not used, right? Fits perfect with the old saying, use it or lose it. Well, something like that. A couple of hundreds years later, the letter Z was put into the latin alphabet and voila, we had our Z back. I mean, seriously, you can't have Greek words without using the letter Z. Which is a great thing cause what we would do without the word zest?

I love this word. Why? Well, because of the its meaning, of course. Zest is a keen relish, a hearty enjoyment, and great gusto. It's also a wonderful flavor or scent placed on something to enhance enjoyment. Did I hear the word soap? Let me make myself clear. I'm not just talking about your Momma's soap. Every day I look for zest in life, in love, and definitely in my writing. I try to put a little zest into the words and scenes in my books. I'm not talking about zany, crazy antics from the hero/heroine. No, I shoot for the stars. I want there to be a spark of magic in my characters to where the reader can feel it.

So for me, Z is a very special letter and one I hope no one takes away too soon. Whatever would we do without zebras, zodiacs, zippers, zeroes...well, you get the picture.
Judith Leger

~ * ~

Judith Leger lives in SW Louisiana (yes, hurricane alley) with her family. Her first publication came when Chicken Soup for the Soul published her personal essay, A Heart of Compassion. Since then, she has had several other short stories and novels published. This year, her fantasy YA, Wraith's Forest under her other pen name LJ Leger, was released. Another brand new release is her fantasy romance novel, Dragon Wish, from Wild Child Publishing. She loves creating new characters and worlds for readers to visit over and over again.

When she’s not writing, she’s reading, watching anime or enjoying the country atmosphere of her home. She sits on her back patio and looks out over the pastures to where her Appaloosa mare is grazing. Her little dachshund is stretched out at her feet. With four men in the house, Judith needs all the female company she can come across, even the four-legged kind. Be sure and stop by her site to check out her other books.
Website : http://www.judithleger.weebly.com/
blog: http://www.judithleger.blogspot.com/
New Release: Dragon Wish - http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/

Buy Link

Y is for YA: Writing for the Young Adult

2011-05-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

As we near the end of the alphabet, I'm very pleased to welcome author Cindy K. Green who shares her thoughts and her expertise on writing Young Adult fiction.

Writing for the Young Adult

Like YA books? Curious about the genre as a reader or a writer? I’ve got some information for you. My love of YA literature began when I was a pre-teen myself and continued as I became a teacher of middle schoolers. When I took the step to become an author, the first manuscript I ever worked on was a YA story. Just like any other type of writing, you need to know your market/audience and genre well. Here’s some help.

What is YA?

YA stands for ‘Young Adult’ and most often refers to literature intended for older tweens and younger teens. These are books which have an interest for teenage readers and follow the growth and experiences of a teenage protagonist. They can have various tones. For example, Meg Cabot’s Princess Diary series is light and funny but there is a lot of truth and reality in there too. On the other hand, there are very dark, almost-adult themed books intended for the YA. They do not all necessarily end happily—that of course will depend on your tone. However, they should have a point and a reason to hope that through this journey the characters are better off either through the change in circumstances or through the lessons learned in the course of their experiences.

What is the age range for young adults?

The range for YA can vary. There is the low rage of 10-12 and then the 12 and up variety. There is even what is called ‘Teen Fiction’ for 16 and up. Generally speaking, young adult refers to those over 12 years of age. Write characters that are a couple years older than your intended audience. YA readers tend to enjoy reading about kids that are the same age or older than themselves. So, if you are aiming for the Jr. High market (12-14 year olds), write a story about a character 14 years-old or older.

Preparation

*Learn the writing craft. Everything you have to know to write for adults pertains to the YA market as well. IT IS NOT EASIER TO WRITE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS. A key bit of advice is to not write down to your readers. Use language that you feel works for your story. If a YA reader doesn’t recognize or know the definition of a word, he can look it up or just deduce the meaning through usage.

*And like all authors know, to write in a certain genre you must read in that genre. So, if you want to write for young adults start reading the books. I have heard some authors suggest you try to read all the YA books in your library. That could be daunting depending on your library, but at least begin to sample them. As a middle school English teacher, I read a lot of YA books before I even contemplated writing in the genre; but that background really helped in writing my book.

*Knowing kids today also helps. You want to be able to get into the heads of today’s teens (as much as we can) and reach them with your story. Figure out a plot that teens can relate to in this day and age.

*Join an organization such as SCBWI, the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. This is one of the best organizations for Children’s writers and illustrators.

The Market & Resources

*Right now the market for YA books is booming. Check out the Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents by Jeff Herman (Prima Publishers) an annual publication that has a subject guide in the back. Also look in the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market from Writer's Digest Books, also an annual.

*If you want a list of YA publishers, try this link. http://homepages.utoledo.edu/pmany/yapubs.html

*Another great website for it’s comprehension into publishing, writing, and reading YA literature can be found at http://library.webster.edu/netresearch/childlit.html.

*Check out Verla Kay’s Website for getting started in writing for Children and Young Adults. http://www.verlakay.com/34getting_started.html

*There are a lot of print resources as well. Here are a couple I can recommend.

Writing for Young Adults by Sherry Garland

Writing for Children and Teenagers by Lee Wyndam

My best advice to you is to write and continue writing. Resolve in your heart that this is something you want to do. My favorite writing quote is that there are more quitters than failures in writing. Don’t be one of the quitters.

This is just a beginning of all the information out there on writing for the young adult. But you have to start somewhere. Any other YA authors have some bits of advice?

***************************

Cindy K. Green is a multi-published author with degrees in History and Education. Previously a middle school English & History teacher, she now homeschools her own children and writes in several genres: Inspirational, Contemporary, Suspense, Fantasy and Historical romance. No matter what she writes, she always throws in a bit of humor and fun. Under the name CK Green she writes YA romantic fiction.

Find out more about Cindy and her books at http://www.cindykgreen.com/ and http://cindykgreen.blogspot.com/. CK Green has a website at http://sites.google.com/site/ckgreenauthor/ and a blog http://ckgreenauthor.blogspot.com/.

X is for X-rated: Writing Erotic Fiction

2011-05-13T18:26:00.001-05:00

We continue the Writer's Alphabet with the letter X. I welcome erotica writer Lori Witt to talk about writing sex in fiction.

A lot of people turn up their noses at sex in fiction. For some, it’s highly offensive (I won’t go off on my “why is sex worse than violence?” rant this time, but believe me, I have one). For others, it’s just not their thing. To each their own, of course.

Some readers, though, don’t believe it can possibly add anything to any story, so why bother? I’ve heard everything from “sex should be used absolutely sparingly and with as little detail as possible” to “sex has no place in fiction. It’s all gratuitous.”

And it is there I must disagree. Fiction involves humans, and humans have sex. But still, why on earth do some of us choose to write about that aspect of life? Is it really that big of a deal?

You’ll probably get a different answer out of any writer. We all have our reasons for writing it or not writing it. I can’t speak for anyone else, but here’s why this erotica author chooses to write copious amounts of sex.

My answer is, yes, sex really is that big of a deal. Big enough that it absolutely has its place in some fiction. The fact is, sex affects people. On countless levels, in countless ways, sex runs much deeper than just physical pleasure. After all, look at the lengths people go to in the pursuit of sex.

In my career, I’ve written sex between friends, exes, adversaries, strangers, longtime lovers, spouses, couples on the verge of breaking up, Dominants/submissives, you name it. Angry sex. Comfort sex. Sex to connect or reconnect. Sex to blow off steam. The possibilities are endless, and in certain situations with certain characters, sex can be the most powerful way to demonstrate the dynamic between those characters. It can change relationships for better or worse. It can show cracks in a relationship or help solidify a shaky foundation. Sometimes it’s a temporary escape from the bad things in life—a way to feel better, if only for a short time, when the rest of the world is falling down around them. The sky’s the limit, really.

If a couple is going through a difficult period, and can’t quite find the words to solve it, sometimes a little physical intimacy can go a long way toward getting back on the same page. As an example, this is a quote from Out of Focus, one of my upcoming books:

“I inched closer until his skin warmed my chest. Dropping a light kiss on his shoulder, I moved my hand down his arm to his hand, and just as I’d hoped, he splayed his fingers to let mine slip between. Squeezing his hand gently, I kissed the back of his neck, and his sharp intake of breath gave me a little more hope that he wouldn’t push me away.

I wanted to ask if he was okay. I wanted to whisper “I love you”. But words didn’t feel right. There was so much we needed to discuss, but at least for the moment, I just needed to know he was still here.”

On the other end of the spectrum, in my BDSM novel, Reconstructing Meredith, the title character is a traumatized submissive and a rape survivor. She has a great deal of psychological damage tied directly to sex, but she wants to take her sexuality back from her abuser, and that’s why she’s approached Scott. He’s an experienced Dominant, as well as a trusted friend and former lover. Little by little, he eases her back into being able to enjoy physical intimacy again, and believe me, it’s a bumpy road. Without showing the sex, I don’t believe the progression of her recovery or her relationship with Scott would have had quite the emotional impact.

In another of my own books, Between Brothers, Marisa is frustrated with the lackluster sex she’s experienced, but she also lacks confidence in all aspects of her life. The more she learns to be assertive in bed, the more she learns to be the same way outside the bedroom.

Sex is more than just two people getting sweaty between the sheets. Oh, it’s certainly hot, and not every sex scene needs to have a deeper emotional meaning, but the fact is, sex changes people. It changes relationships.

In short, while it most definitely does not have its place in every story, sex absolutely does have a very valid place in fiction.

Buy Link

BIO:

Lori Witt is an erotica writer who is said to be living in Okinawa, Japan, with her husband and two incredibly spoiled cats. There is some speculation that she is once again on the run from the Polynesian Mafia in the mountains of Bhutan, but she’s also been sighted recently in the jungles of Brazil, on a beach in Spain, and in a back alley in Detroit with some shifty-eyed toaster salesmen. Though her whereabouts are unknown, it is known that she writes hetero erotic romance under the pseudonym Lauren Gallagher and gay erotic romance as L. A. Witt.

Website: http://www.loriawitt.com/

Professional blog: http://gallagherwitt.blogspot.com/

Personal blog: http://navywifeadventures.blogspot.com/

Twitter: GallagherWitt

Women's Fiction Talk and Book Signing

2011-05-10T00:34:00.000-05:00

F.O.R. Sto-Rox Public Library Thursday, May 5, 2011, where I spoke about Women's Fiction: Telling Our Own Stories and followed with a book signing.

The most popular book that evening?
The Year I Lost My Mind

I had a great time at the F.O.R. Sto-Rox Library in McKees Rocks, PA. Thanks so much to Sue Ann and Brad for welcoming me once again, and to everyone to came out and joined in the fun. For those of you who missed it--well, there were prizes. Bet you'll be there next time!

I always enjoy the opportunity to meet readers, talk about my books, and hear what it is that readers look for in a good story. If you missed this event, I hope to see you soon at another event near you.

Linda

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-06T00:01:00.005-05:00

Anna Catherine Hennessey Rettstatt
1925-1991

Today's Alphabet Blog post would have been the letter 'X'. Then I considered that this Sunday, we celebrate Mother's Day. Since all of us writers, at one time, had a mother (or you may still have her with you), I figured it's a great time to honor mothers. We'll return to the Writer's Alphabet and the letter 'X' next week.

My mom, Anna Catherine Hennessey Rettstatt was born in 1925 and passed away in 1991. A short life by today's standards. Being the eldest of nine children, I think my mother, known to most folks at Kay, began mothering at the age of four. She grew up in a large family supported on a coal miner's salary. No frills and, I imagine, hard financial times, though she never talked about those times or complained.

With her younger sister, Bridget

My mom loved family and was a constant in the lives of my self and my younger sister, Peggy. We never came home to an empty house. She would often tell us stories from her teenaged years--sneaking out of the house to meet friends or taking risky bike rides in the dark down winding country roads--then end the story with, "And don't even think about trying that." She loved a good joke, too, and was quick to laugh. Memories that I still have on old 8 mm movies are of mom playing baseball in the back yard (she loved baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates) and trying, over and over, to master the Hula Hoop. She loved to dance and to sing, and could often be caught humming a country song while she worked. If she were around today, I've no doubt Dancing With the Stars and American Idol would be her TV favorites.

While she preferred to do the housekeeping and cooking herself, therein failing to teach me to survive on my own (something I learned quickly when I moved into my first apartment), she did teach me other important values. The small town in which I grew up had three known homeless people: Bill, Johnnie, and Annie. My mom was fearful and anxious at times, but never allowed her fears to prevent her from doing a kindness. We lived in the days when glass soda (pop) bottles were worth a nickle. The homeless folks would forage for bottles (much like people gather cans today) and would turn them in at the local grocery in exchange for food. My mother collected our bottles and set them out on the back porch for Bill or Johnnie to pick up. She often left a foil-wrapped package of food, as well.

I would like to say that my mother and I were close, best friends. But we were not. I always thought that was because we were so very different in our views on life. I learned, as I approached my middle years, that we were very much alike. They say that, at some point, we all become our mothers. In some ways, I could only be so lucky.

If you still have your mom with you this Mother's Day, let her know she is loved. If she has already passed from this life, honor her by remembering and sharing something about her.

And if you're a mom, Happy Mother's Day!

Linda

W is for Wit and Humor in Writing

2011-04-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

Laughter is good for us. But injecting wit and humor into writing demands skill. Joining us today from Australia to talk about the challenge of infusing humor into our writing is Sci/Fi Futuristic Romance author Angela Verdenius.

I agreed to do a blog – no, I volunteered to write about Wit & Humor in, well, writing. I agree to do these things, ‘cause at the time it seems a really great idea, then as the day nears that it’s due, I start to ask myself – yet again – why I do this to myself? What if I flop badly? What if not only the readers but also the owner of the blog, hates it? In a nutshell, I…have no idea. ROTFL

I write Sci-fi/futuristic romance, and have also recently written a horror/satire short story. I’m really proud of that one, I had so much fun screwing with protocol, political correctness, and zombies! I’m currently working on my first contemporary romance.

I believe that wit and humor can exist in almost any genre – urban fantasy, biographies, romance, horror, thrillers – you name it. The secret is…HOW does one incorporate wit and humor into the written word?

I can’t tell you that. I know, I just burst your bubble. Humor is a very touchy subject. What one reader (and the author, let’s be honest) laughs like a hyena at, the other reader will roll his/her eyes and tell all and sundry what utter garbage they just read.

I can tell you how I write it. Having a bit of toilet humor and a liking for sarcasm (sad but true, people, just ask my long-suffering mother), I like to inject some of that into my books. Some titles I deliberately set out to have a lot of humor (read my Love’s titles. Please. I need the money). My heroines say the most outrageous things to try and get out of situations. I basically let rip and have them say all those things I would love to say to someone in that situation. My heroes are usually left flummoxed. Always a good thing with humorous romances.

Of course, not all my books are witty (some would say none of them are, but I’m not going to interview them, okay?), such as my Soul and most of my Heart books (read these titles. Please. I need to keep my cats in the comfort to which they’ve become accustomed), but I think they still need a touch of humor, be it a little dark, or just something to give a smile. Really, can a romance be a romance without a touch of lightness here and there?

So what I am saying, people, is that what I write is how I tend to speak myself. Most times. Okay, I wouldn’t say some of what I write to a church minister, because even I draw the line somewhere, but when I write a humor piece, I set out with the right attitude, a lightness of mind, and I put myself into the heroine’s shoes. I write what I think is funny. If it’s clumsy, I’ll take it out.

The dialogue rolls from my mind, to my tongue, to the page. Sometimes my heroine will say things I’d LOVE to say but am not game enough, other times I think, “she is so me!” Scarily, I’ve had a friend who says she can see me in the heroines.

Basically, I believe you write how you think, there is no other way. Some readers will love it (same sense of humor), others will hate it (not-same sense of humour), and others will be ‘ho-hum’ (I can’t figure them out myself).

So is there a secret? Can anyone go out and write a gut-busting, witty book? I don’t believe you can. I don’t believe there’s a secret formula. It has to come from within yourself, what YOU think is funny, how YOU believe your witty heroine would answer someone or act, how YOU would answer it. Individual readers will see your book as funny or not. That’s the down and dirty truth.

So all I can say is…write how you would respond. You might find it funny, someone else might not. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, the ball rolls, my cat destroys toilet paper… it just is. (I hope no one is taking note of grammar here).

I truly believe that we all write as differently as we perceive the story and the world around us.

So who is my number one favourite humorous & witty author? Janet Evanovich – her Stephanie Plum books rule!

Cheers

Angela Verdenius

http://www.angelaverdenius.com/

Bio:

Angela Verdenius lives in Australia, where she is ruled by her cats, adores reading, and thinks a perfect day is writing and drinking Diet Coke, followed by reading or a good horror movie.

Angela has written 18 novels and 2 novellas, self-published a short horror story, and her books have won many reviewers’ awards as well as having been on the Fictionwise best-seller list. Soul of a Guardian won the Golden Rose Award, and she was a finalist in the Australian Romance Reader’s Awards.

Learn more about Angela at: http://www.angelaverdenius.com/

Available now at Wings ePress

My Award Arrived Today

2011-04-25T18:52:00.001-05:00

My Author of the Year Award from Champagne Books arrived today. Stop by my website to see how nicely it balances out my mantle.

http://www.lindarettstatt.com/Awards.html

V is for Villains

2011-04-22T21:47:00.001-05:00

This week Romantic Eco-suspense and Eco-thriller author, Lynn Romaine returns to talk with us about Villains.

VILLAINS ARE THE BEST

What would we do without our villains? Suspense writers especially are in debt to them. Those poor creatures who we invent and then proceed to beat up, run over with a truck, push off a mountain, or just pull a gun and shoot them. The problem with our villains is that we want to hate them—and THAT is a problem. Why? Because to make a villain live on a page, whether the reader knows it or not, that reader needs to feel something for the bad guy besides distain. She needs to know that the character is not just a cut-out, but a human being, with a kaleidoscope of feelings like all human beings, with a mother and a father and maybe even children.

Planning Ahead

The above being said, I have to admit, I haven’t taken much time to consider my villains and their characters in detail. I’ve created a female sociopath who kills the father who abandoned her as a child, a psychopath who torments the person he believes stole his love away, a pillar of society who committed murder as a kid and now is trying to keep his crime secret, and finally a scurvy businessman who massacres a family to keep the mafia off his back. For me, I see they’ve all been plot techniques, ways to solve my story without a lot of fuss about character as I focus on my heroines. I have devoted very little time to really considering my villains and truly developing deep characters.

What would my books be like if I did take some time to consider the inner conflicts that drive the villain to mayhem? What if this was as important as the heroine’s internal struggles?

With that in mind, I’ve done a little web research to come up with some basic ideas for villain development. I hope you find them as useful as I do since I plan on referring to them from now on as I write my thrillers.

Villains – what are they good for?

Here are a few basic themes where a villain comes in handy as the scapegoat:

• Righting a prior wrong

• Revenge (the victim deserved to die)

• Vigilante justice (the justice system didn’t work)

• Protecting a loved one

• Restoring order to the world.

(http://www.writersdigest.com/article/3-techniques-for-crafting-your-villain/)

Villain Do’s and Don’t’s

* You don’t need one to create a tension filled story (although I can’t the suspense thrillers I write without them;

* It’s good (and fun) to have the villain get his due. There was something so satisfying about the scene when Lisbeth Salander (The Girl Who Played with Fire) shot the creepy motorcycle badass in the foot after he tried to rape her.

* Don’t overdo the villain thing. He needs a couple of good things about him, something to make him or her human.

* Make sure the villains are believable in their own economic, social class, with the right clothes, language, job, etc.

* Make sure you connect the villain’s actions that make him or her act/react, not just a random bad person.

* Don’t forget even villains have goals. Make sure you have a clear one in mind and let the reader in on the goal early in the story.

I can’t think of anything else that’s important to writing a villain. If you have some suggestions, Please feel free to add your comments below.

Linda, thanks so much for letting me dig into the world of bad guys on your so good and gentle blog. Lynn Romaine

~ * ~

Lynn Romaine, Master’s Degree in Information Science from Indiana University, she lives in Bloomington, Indiana. She writes romantic suspense and ecothriller novels with five books in print. She has participated continuously in Landmark Education and the earlier forms of the education since 1975. She is committed to all people living created lives and words that inspire the world. In 2008, she created an organization called Red Pants for the World, encouraging young women in Afghanistan and everywhere to find their self-expression through words that inspire the world.

Buy Link

You can find Lynn on the web at: http://www.lynnromaine.com/ and at http://www.lynnromaine.com/

I won!

2011-04-19T21:48:00.000-05:00

I am so happy to announce that I have been named Author of the Year for 2010 at Champagne Books. I'm humbled by this award, and I'm proud to be in the company of such fine authors--fellow nominees: Michael Davis, Rebecca Goings, Tanya Eby,

Rie McGaha, and Todd Hunter.

Thanks so much to J. Ellen Smith and Champagne Books for this honor.

Review: Writer's Wellness by Joy E. Held

2011-04-17T18:00:00.001-05:00

Buy link

I haven't yet posted book reviews here on my blog, but I wanted to share this review because many of my readers are also writers. Here is my review of Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity by Joy E. Held.

In Writer Wellness, Joy Held presents a comprehensive program for achieving mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical unity. As an author, I know the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle while being absorbed by my writing. Healthy meals and exercise are the first to go. I do my best work when I’m rested, centered, and my body is comfortable.

As a former psychotherapist, I believe in the value of creativity that feeds the human spirit and engages the mind and the emotions. I’ve long believed that creativity is a human need and results in joy and wholeness. Joy Held has given us a book that will not only benefit writers, but anyone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle and tap into the depths of their creative spirit.

Linda Rettstatt, Author of Next Time I’m Gonna Dance

You can find Joy Held at http://writerwellness.wordpress.com/

On the subject of having a 'Mews'

2011-04-17T10:05:00.000-05:00

Come on over to friend and fellow author Kimberley Dehn's blog to find out why I no longer need an alarm clock.

Hint: It has something to do with the critter in the picture!

http://keptbycats.blogspot.com/

(Great blog for writers and the pet that inspire them)

Useful Tools for Writers

2011-04-14T23:20:00.002-05:00

As we near the end of the alphabet, I'd like to welcome Jim Woods back with us to talk about U (no, not you), but Useful Tools for Writers.

In the mid 1960s when I finally was able to return to college, following my military duty and starting a family, and having put a career in electronics engineering behind me in favor of journalism, I was introduced to a handy little booklet that would be part of my literary life forever. The compact writers guide is still a part of my literary reference library that has grown to two-dozen volumes of writing advice, tips, and most importantly, style. According to the authors, that sixty-page, half-size Guide to Rapid Revision was not intended as a course book for creative writing, but a quick reference source of frequently needed answers to style and writing-convention questions. Somewhat later I added yet another slim, small and extremely useful book of writing rules to my resources, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.

I was to be governed by several other publication style guides over my writing life, some huge and heavy ones dictated by the military, and other commercial and medical tomes equally impressive in size and scope, but those earlier concise guidebooks molded me as an author.

Of all the writers guidebooks available in print and on line, perhaps the most useful for book authors is The Chicago Manual of Style. Its history goes back well over a century, when the University of Chicago Press opened its doors in 1891. At that time, The Press was dedicated to publishing scientific works from the university’s own professors. To bring a common set of rules to the process, the composing room staff drew up style guidelines. “The University Press Style Book and Style Sheet” grew into a more substantial pamphlet and the pamphlet grew into a book with the impressive title, Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use. At two hundred pages, this original First Edition cost fifty cents, plus six cents for postage and handling. Now in its 16th edition, The Chicago Manual of Style, with more than a thousand pages in print or more than two thousand paragraphs online, has become the authoritative reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, copywriters and publishers.

On the other hand, journalists are better served by The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. The friendly title is simply “AP Stylebook,” but by whatever name, it is a style and usage guide for the United States news industry. Incidentally, the volume on my personal reference shelf is “…and Libel Manual” instead of the updated “… and Briefing on Media Law.” The lesson from this is that all style manuals are updated and re-released as time and convention requires. The AP Stylebook is used by reporters and editors as a guide for grammar, punctuation and principles and practices of reporting. It’s also considered an industry standard for broadcasters, magazines and public relations firms.

From time to time I use both styleguides—the Chicago Manual most often—but a third such manual in my library is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Assocation. Obviously from that impressive title, it’s quite a specialized writing guide. I purchased it for one time use, needing it for an editing commission, but it certainly looks impressive on my bookshelf.

These widely accepted styleguides are superceded by the individual publishers’ in-house style conventions. However, if you start out adhering to The Chicago Manual of Style if you’re writing books; or the The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law if you’re writing for broadcast or other print media, you can’t be too far from wrong in the eyes of your editor.

If these strict style guides are seen as mandatory requirements by some publishers, authors can learn much from the plethora of less-restrictive writing-tip books available from a number of successful authors, and written in conversational style. But whatever writers’ aid books you choose, the basic collection must be anchored by a good dictionary—mine weighs fifteen pounds and requires its own pedestal stand—and a print thesaurus. Another reference that I depend on, and I do not know if it is available in a recent printing, is J.I. Rodale’s The Word Finder, which does not find substitute words as does a thesaurus, but suggests words to embellish an idea. Don’t settle for a pretty sunset if that sunset can be crimson, brilliant, fiery, lingering or glorious.

What it boils down to is that to be a sucessful writer you first had better become a studious reader. Everything you ever need to know is in the book.

~ * ~

Jim Woods is an independent editor assisting book authors, small presses and corporations with line, style, and substance editing; applying his expertise to novels, short story collections, nonfiction and corporate image. Formerly, he was in-house Editor, Managing Editor and Contributing Editor with two commercial magazine publishers. His professional associations include American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA). He lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.

See his website: http://users.dakotacom.net/~jwoods

Buy Link

He is author of the fiction collection, CABBAGES AND KINGS, and other fiction works with Champagne Books: http://www.champagnebooks.com/

SHE SERPENT

THE DIAMOND EXCHANGE

Buy Link

GUNSHOT ECHOES

ASSASSINATION SAFARI

Follow Me on Networked Blogs

2011-04-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

Hi, blog followers. If you look on the right side menu, you'll see the current Followers list and, below that, a new 'Follow' Box from Networked Blogs. I'm asking that if you don't mind, please jump in there and follow.

Thanks much.

Linda

T is for Timing and Pacing

2011-04-07T20:56:00.000-05:00

Timing is everything. How many times have you heard that saying. This week we hear from author Camille Cavanagh about the intricacies of timing and pacing.

“Begin as close to the end of your story as possible.” I don’t remember where I heard that, but it was excellent advice and one that I find myself wishing more authors, including myself, would heed. As an author I am interested in my characters and their backstory and I want my readers to be interested as well. What I have learned, however, is that backstory must be hoarded by the author and only doled out in fragments, if at all. Backstory slows the pacing of a novel to the point where a reader will stop reading. Of course this is the very last thing you want to happen! Though you began your paragraph with good intent—to give the reader insight, to connect them to the character—large info dumps, in fact, do the exact opposite.

Backstory is crucial; to you the author. To your readers, however, nothing from history is needed. A story that starts in real time and goes only forward (unless it is a time travel) should be your goal. Anything, anything that is needed from the backstory can be revealed in another way to enrich character or to build motivation. Action and suspense move a story forward. Think tension, of all kinds, and you will keep the reader reading. You want your reader keeping that book in their hands until the last page is turned. Tension and suspense will do this. Good writers in all genres know how to weave all kinds of tension into their writing and keep building and building until the reader is so tense they can do nothing but read.

Dialogue, quick snappy back and forth like a good ping pong match with always quicken pace. Keep your tags to a minimum of course, “he said, she said” and only for clarity. And you must resist the urge to “table dust” or have two characters discussing something (while doing nothing but dusting) just to provide info dump in a different way. Any way you slice it, it still spells boring. I love the phrase “in real life, things happen one after the other—in fiction things happen because of the other”. Make it your mantra.

There should be no extra information, no extra scenes and no extra words. Readers are savvy, readers are smart, and readers can connect the dots of your story. Do not connect the dots for them; they want to be challenged. Never answer a question until you have posed another one, otherwise why should they keep reading? The best compliment a reader can pay me is to tell me they couldn’t put my book down. The best reviews say “it’s a page turner” because this means I have got the timing and the pacing correct. Before you begin your next novel draw your plot line out and drop your pen in the middle—start your story there and keep your reader guessing until the very last page. Some people will recommend you pace your novel with action scenes and thoughtful sequels; giving your readers time to catch their breath. I say up the action and build upon it until the very last scene. Your readers can breathe once the book is finished. Trust me; they’ll beg you for more!

Camille’s first memory of wanting to be a writer comes from her early teens. Her short story “A Love to Remember” had been gingerly passed to a friend. Unbeknownst to her, that friend shared it with another, and eventually circled it around the school, until one day a classmate thrust a well-worn copy back into her hands and said, “I don’t know who wrote this, but you’ve got to read it!”

She has since written several novels, short stories and poems and also works as an editor. Camille lives in British Columbia, Canada.

Buy Link

Camille's historical romance novel, A Claim on Her Heart is now available at Wings ePress. You can find Camille on the web at http://www.camillecavanagh.com/

S is for Suspense

2011-03-31T21:12:00.000-05:00

This week I'm pleased to welcome author Lynn Romaine who will talk about the 'S' word--Suspense

THE ‘S’ WORD AND LISBETH

“Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening.” (from Wikipedia)

Well, there it is – the S word. Many of us love it, read it and even write it. Like a lot of young girls, my first suspense book, Rebecca by D. DuMaurier, got me hooked. I fell in love with anything dangerous--from DuMaurier to Victoria Holt to Mary Stewart.

So when I started my first novel eight years ago, I never considered writing anything but murder and mayhem, the heroine in dire straits, always coming out the winner.

Whether you are a reader or a writer, why do you like suspense books? The question is probably a moot one, since most of us would say we read (and write) for the pleasure of it.

And all stories contain tension or suspense, even a cozy mystery, where something is at stake. Whether it’s Pride and Prejudice or Silence of the Lambs, we hold our collective breaths and hope for a good outcome. Happily it’s fiction and we know when it’s over, we’ll still be safe and sound in our comfy armchair.

Let’s get to the S word and connect it up to the Lisbeth of my title. Suspense is the best way I can think of to write tension and I don’t have to try hard to make sure it’s included. Just have a stranger leap out on my heroine, grab her and toss her to the ground. The good part is I can also turn her into a super-heroine, who fights her way out of the man’s clutches and, better still, she can get even by jumping into his car and backing over him! Pretty gruesome, right? What’s a middle-aged woman like me doing writing that kind of stuff? Well, it feels great to create a world where women have the upper hand, where they are not mincing about, afraid they might wander down some dark alley.

So I write suspense. My best recent model of the perfect heroine is Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It’s no accident this book has sold over thirty million books. Lisbeth does what every female secretly dreams about—getting even with the bad guys. So I write suspense where I can guarantee this happens. I am now working on book six and, as usual, it looks like it is going to end badly for my heroine, Sonny Betancourt, who is stalked, run over, beaten up, and eventually kidnapped. But never fear, I write suspense and my heroine always wins.

You can find Lynn Romaine on the web at: http://www.lynnromaine.com/ and at http://www.womenwritersunderground.blogspot.com/

Buy this Book

Coming June, 2011
Turquoise Morning Press

R is for Research

2011-03-25T22:38:00.000-05:00

This week, I welcome award-winning author Allison Knight to share her experience on research.

RESEARCH AND THE FICTION WRITER

Linda, thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite topics, research. Historical and contemporary authors have to do research, it's a fact of life, but how do I go about doing it? Well, here are some hints, learned over nearly thirty years of writing and making a lot of mistake. So -- let's get to it.

If you write Science fiction, fantasy or even paranormal romance you don't have as much of a problem as the rest of us. Researching the customs, events, or location isn't difficult when you can create your world, or your creatures. However, for the rest of us trying to deal with real world, it's not that easy. We face the need for research.

Unfortunately, if you make a glaring mistake, believe me there is someone out there who will read your book and discredit your prose because you made a mistake. Rumor has it that a romance writer included a breed of horse in one of her westerns that didn't exist at the time of her novel. A horse enthusiast spread the word the author couldn't be trusted to write a decent novel and the author's career was ruined. I can't vouch for the story, but if it's true, it's enough to give an author chills.

Most of us try very hard to get the facts right. So how do we do it.

I love encyclopedias. And with the internet we have a great deal of information available now that we couldn't access as easily when we had to find in books we barrowed from the library or bought what we wanted to know. You can still go to the library, but it takes a tremendous amount of time to find one piece of information. You can still buy books, but it's discouraging to buy a book only to find what you wanted wasn't in it. However, the internet has changed the way most of us research.

So when using the internet, always verify the information with at least two dependable, independent sources. Better yet, find three sources with the same information. That will usually indicate the facts you have are correct. If you think what you've found is questionable, make a note of the date of the site and the url and keep it with whatever information you've gathered. I use a notebook for each novel with a section for research and I stash my notes there.

Authorities are great. When I wanted information about a particular hurricane of the nineteenth century -- indication from what direction it came, how long the eye would have lasted, (that kind of info) I called a professional meteorologist. Then I talked to someone who had been through a hurricane. Not surprisingly, both people were delighted to talk about their knowledge or their experience. When I needed information on what kind of rifle would be carried and how to shot the thing, I asked a gun collector who was renowned for his knowledge. Again, he too, was more than happy to explain what I needed to know. So don't be afraid to approach the person who might have information you need. I even involved my medical doctor, asking what a certain type of injury would affect a person's available to walk. It also gave me a chance to promote my newest book.

Books, especially journals and autobiographies can provide great information, especially if you are writing a historical novel or romance. Don't discount newspaper articles either. I hesitate using the expertise of another fiction author unless I know something about that individual's researching techniques. Time lines work well if your story involves related events.

Last, if you are trying to describe a location, traveling to the site is the best method to use. However, if you can't go, or the area has changed a great deal because of time or condition, again 'Google maps' or old maps can help. Sometimes you can discover the needed description in journals or newspaper reports which will give clues. But be careful. Twice, I made glaring mistakes about location. In the first, I had the wrong army starting the battle and in the second I describe a location as level farm land when in reality the area was mountainous. In both instances, I caught the mistakes before the books went to the editor. So be sure and check your facts, several times if you can't visit the location.

If you make up a location, even though your publisher will probably add a disclaimer at the beginning of the book, it's a good idea to check and make sure the place doesn't exist.

And, it's not a bad idea to add your own disclaimer to either the beginning of the end of the book letting your editor know you have checked the fact.
Researching a novel can often seem like putting puzzle pieces together to make a whole, and it can be as addictive as fitting a puzzle together. It's part of what makes writing historicals such fun for me.

Roses for My Lady

Award winning author, Allison Knight began her writing career like many other authors. She read a book she didn’t like and knew she could do a better job. She grabbed paper and typewriter (computers were not available back then) and announced she was going to write a book. Her children hooted with laughter.

“Yeh, Mom, when cows fly,” her daughter declared.

She took classes, joined a critique group and RWA, and wrote, rewrote and wrote some more. When her first book sold, she came home from her teaching job to find a stuffed toy cow rotating from the ceiling fan in the family room.

It seemed - “Cows did fly!”

Since that time, Allison has written and published seventeen romances for both digital and NY publishers with a digital valentine novella coming out in February. Her current work is another medieval book from her 'song' series.

Because she loves to share her knowledge and her love of romance novels she often blogs with other authors. She also loves to talk about the growing digital market.

Battlesong

You can find her at:

http://www.allisonknight.com/

http://www.allisonknight.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/AuthorAllisonKnight

She blogs once a month for The Writers' Vineyard, http://thewritersvineyard.com/

Q is for Query

2011-03-18T01:44:00.000-05:00

This week I'm pleased to welcome author Elaine Cantrell who gives us the 'dos and don'ts of the dreaded Query Letter.

In several places on the internet I’ve heard people moaning over the “dreaded query letter”, and I understand why people dread writing them. This is your first chance to make a good impression on an editor or assistant editor, and you don’t want to blow it. They probably don’t spend more than a minute on each letter, so if yours doesn’t stand out they won’t request your book. The query letter is so important some publishers have guidelines explaining how to write them on their websites. If a publisher does offer guidelines, you should follow them to the letter.

I don’t claim to be the world’s foremost authority on writing query letters, but I do have a pretty good track record. A large percentage of the time when I send one the editor asks to read the manuscript. They don’t always take the book, but they do read it. So this is how I do it. Be aware that the procedure for an electronic submission and a paper submission isn’t much different.

First, look to see who you should send the email or letter to. If it’s an electronic submission, sometimes, it only says to send it to submissions@, but sometimes you have to direct the email to the appropriate editor. If that’s the case be sure you spell the name correctly.

Now, let’s take a look at what you should do and what you shouldn’t.

DO:

1. Be professional. Don’t go on and on about your kids or pets. The editor isn’t interested.

2. Set it up like a standard business letter.

3. Remember to include your name, address, email, and phone number.

4. Include any awards you’ve won and an overview of your publishing history. It’s okay to put your best foot forward here, but don’t tell the editor how much your friends like the book.

5. Keep it about a page in length.

6. Remember to thank the editor for his/her time.

7. Use standard, easy to read fonts like Times New Roman.

8. Watch your grammar.

9. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope with a written submission.

10. Single space your paragraphs, and add a space between paragraphs.

DON’T:

1. Tease the editor by saying, ‘If you want to know how it turns out, I’ll send my book to you.

2. Use gimmicks in a written submission. Sparkly confetti should not fall out of an envelope and coat the editor’s desk.

3. Use hyperbole. Your work should speak for itself.

4. Tell them who has previously rejected the manuscript.

5. Say that it still needs work.

6. Discuss payment, rights, or ask for criticism.

7. Discuss more than one work at a time.

Now, let’s look at a typical query letter. I’m plugging in my pitch for my novel Return Engagement which the publisher did take. This publisher wanted electronic submissions to a submissions@ type of thing. I attached a manuscript and a full synopsis because that was what they asked for.

Today's date

The editor's (or agent's) name and title

The publication's name

The publications address

Dear (Mr./Ms.) (editor's [or agent's] last name),

Elizabeth Lane has heard the call of the four most seductive words in the entire English language: what might have been. Would you risk everything you hold dear to find out what might have been? That’s the choice which Elizabeth has to make.

Elizabeth is lucky, for she has it all, money, fame, a satisfying career and a devoted fiancé. Her humble beginnings are all but obscured, but she isn’t the kind of woman Senator Henry Lovinggood wants for his son, Richard. Senator Lovinggood plans to make Richard the President of the United States; he’ll need a woman from a wealthy, powerful family by his side. Ten years ago he broke Richard and Elizabeth up, but this time it won’t be so easy, for Elizabeth wants to know what might have been. This time she’ll fight back, a struggle which ultimately leads to kidnapping and attempted murder and alienates her from the man of her dreams.

Return Engagement is a 90,000 word contemporary romance. It is my sixth novel. My first work, A New Leaf, was the 2003 winner of the Timeless Love contest. It was published in October of 2004 by Oak Tree Press. Since that time, I’ve had three other novels published and have signed contracts for two more. The tone of my work has been compared to Elizabeth Peters, but I believe it’s closer to Danielle Steele.

I was born and raised in South Carolina. I hold a Master’s Degree in Personnel Services from Clemson University and am a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary sorority for women educators. I am also a member of Romance Writer’s of America and EPIC authors. At present I teach high school social studies.

I hope that my manuscript will be something you can use. I have attached the manuscript and a full synopsis to this email. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Your name

Your address

Your phone number

Your email

Some people talk about themselves before they give a little blurb about their book, but to me it makes more sense this way. Good luck with your query. I hope the first editor you query takes your book.

~ * ~

Elaine Cantrell was born and raised in South Carolina. She holds a Master’s Degree in Personnel Services from Clemson University and is a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary sorority for women educators. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America and EPIC authors. Her first novel, A New Leaf, was the 2003 winner of the Timeless Love Contest and was published in 2004 by Oak Tree Books. At present she teaches high school social studies. In her spare time she enjoys reading, collecting vintage Christmas ornaments, and playing with her grandchildren. Visit Elaine at http://www.elainecantrell.com/ and at http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com/ . She’s on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/elainepcantrell and would love to be friends.

By the way, Return Engagement is number 5 on the Whiskey Creek Press best seller list. If you’d like to read the first chapter, you can find it at http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=7fa33b46f4d99c91cd844487be68adb4&keyword=return+engagement
Romantic Times gave Return Engagement 4 ½ stars and said, ‘This touching story is beautifully written and explores the emotions involved when two people who love each other are influenced by outside forces and their own doubts. Each character is fully developed and the plot is filled with interesting twists.’

My links:

http://www.elainecantrell.com/

http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/elainepcantrell I’d love to be friends. Do send me a request.

The Party's Over

2011-03-13T11:56:00.003-05:00

Always a bridesmaid, never the bride--sigh.

The 2011 EPIC Awards Conference took place this weekend. As you may know, Next Time I'm Gonna Dance finaled for an EPIC e-Book award. Unfortunately, I didn't win the prize this year. It was my third finaling, and I was hoping third time would be a charm. But, as you can see from the photo of my mantle, I'm optimistic about next year. (and, no, my mantle doesn't sag--it's the angle of the photo)

I am pleased that Trisha FitzGerald won the Ariana Award for cover art for Next Time I'm Gonna Dance. The award is well-deserved. Just look at that cover!

My congratulations to all the winners. For the others who finaled and didn't win (I can't use the word 'losers'; there is honor in finaling)--see you at the dance next year?

Linda

P is for Point of View

2011-03-10T23:29:00.000-06:00

This week I am pleased to welcome author Jane Toombs who talks with us about Point of View.

THERE IS A POINT TO POINT OF VIEW

Think of readers as becoming fairly easily confused. Unless you tell your story in a clear and logical format, you can count on them getting annoyed with you. If the reader happens to be a first reader for a publisher, you can count on your confusing story getting rejected right then and there.

Who is telling your story? If you decide to use the I character to make it more immediate, then you’re using first person.

1. With the I character, you must remember no one else in your story can have a point of view. Everything that happens is shown through how she or he sees or hears the action. This is called the first person point of view.

This character is always I or me so you can’t use a name. Some writers have gotten around that by having a chapter or two told by somebody else, but that’s tricky to do and some readers don’t like it. But many readers do enjoy the I person telling the story because it definitely is more immediate.

Wrong:

When I realized neither Arthur nor the pretty blonde he had his arm around had seen me, I was ready to call out, but held when he pulled her closer.

Arthur stared in disbelief over Beth’s shoulder at his fiancée. Damn. She was looking straight at the two of them. Have to talk fast to get out of this one.

Right:

When I realized neither Arthur nor the pretty blonde he had his arm around had seen me, I was ready to call out, but held when he pulled her closer. Then he spotted me. His guilty look changed to a forced smile as he let go of the blonde and waved.

What was wrong with the first example? In first person with the I character, no one else can have a POV—and Arthur did.

In the second one the I character interprets what she sees him do.

2. The You is called second person point of view. In other words “You went to the store .” You is the character, and, again, nameless . The entire story is told from that second You point of view and no one else can have a viewpoint. Most writers find this very awkward and most readers find it off-putting. Second person is rarely used for this reason. It’s difficult to do successfully.

3. The third person character point of view is the one most commonly used because it allows more scope for the writer. The characters do have names. But do remember that third person can be from only one character’s point of view at a time, most often the hero or heroine. Be careful to separate by an extra space or **** when another character takes over. If there is a villain, he or she and also have a point of view if separated from the two others. I find it easiest to give the villain a separate chapter or chapters, even if they’re short ones. Be extremely careful not to head hop.

To avoid that, use a line break to help the reader realize someone else is speaking. Try not to do this more than once in a single scene.

Wrong: Mary felt his embrace was somehow false and stiffened in his arms.

John muttered a curse word as he let her go. Mary was just too bloody perceptive.

Right: Mary felt his embrace was somehow false and stiffened in his arms. John released her immediately, but she heard him curse and he glared at her.

What was wrong with the first example. Again, without a line break of any kind, we were switched into John’s POV.

4. Omniscient third person is where any character can have a point of view. This multiple POV takes skill, if it’s not limited, so can be a disaster for a writer who isn’t already skilled in handling this. My advice to any writer who doesn’t have a few books to their credit, is to leave it alone. After all, any character in a story can voice their opinions without getting into their POV.

Wrong: Janice took aim and pulled the trigger, felling Fred.

Gloria screamed, afraid she’d be next, but Betty sprang forward, determined to wrest the gun away from Janice.

Right: Janice took aim and pulled the trigger, Fred fell. Gloria screamed, no doubt afraid she was next, but Betty sprang forward, so Janice took aim at her.

What was wrong with the first example? All three women had a POV--bing, bang, boom. This is not the way to handle omniscient POV. .

5. Animal POV. Unless most of the story is going to be told, for example, from a dog’s POV, don’t have that dog speak or think anything. This holds true for all animals. If you want to indicate the animal has an opinion, say something like: “From the way my cat looked at me, I could tell he was disgusted.”

Or as my oldest son said to me when he was eight: “Don’t bring me any more books from the library where animals talk, because they don’t.”

Go figure--he wound up being a doctor.

~ * ~

Jane Toombs, born in California, raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, has returned "home" to live in the beautiful Upper Peninsula on the shore of Lake Superior--with the Viking from her past. Jane has five children, two stepchildren, seven grandchildren, a calico cat named Kinko and two computers.

She's the author of over eighty published books, both in paper and electronic. These include the various romance genres--gothic, suspense, contemporary, historical, Regency and paranormal--as well as other genres such as mystery, fantasy and horror. Jane has used pseudonyms--Ellen Jamison, Diana Stuart, Olivia Sumner--but is now writing under her own name except for her Zebra/Pinnacle romances for which she uses Jane Anderson.

Find out more about Jane's books at: www.JaneToombs.com

and visit Jane (Dame Turquoise) at: www.JewelsoftheQuill.com

O is for Overwriting.

2011-03-03T21:14:00.002-06:00

This week, multi-published romance and romantic suspense author, Carol McPhee, shares her thoughts with us on Overwriting.

OVERWRITING

Wordiness weakens the force of expression. Conciseness alone doesn’t achieve effective writing, but it is hard for a writer to write forcefully if two or three words are used to convey the idea one word could express.

Examples: John is going to plan to write you soon.
                John will write to you soon.

Students who disobey the rules will be separated from the university.
Students who disobey the rules will be expelled.

When I first started submitting chapters to a critique group I joined years ago, several of the critiquers harped on my verbosity. My question to them was: were not all words equal and shared the right to be used? Apparently not. In today’s fast-paced world, readers want to get to the crux of the story and not be led into a maze of unnecessary words. Overly long sentences put the reader at a loss as to the writer’s point before the end is reached. Wordy writing characterized by excessive detail, needless repetition, and convoluted sentence structures can derail the most passionate of readers. It makes the writing uninteresting and tedious.

To avoid wordiness in your writing:

Eliminate words which are redundant or superfluous: Redundancies, such as "cooperate together," "close proximity," "red in color," "small in size" or "end result," make thinking sloppy and tax the reader’s patience. In effective writing, every word serves a purpose. Take out empty words or phrases that do not affect the sentence’s meaning.

For example:
(along the lines of) - replace with - like
(as a matter of fact)     in fact
(at all times)      always
(because of the fact that)    because
(by means of)      by

Eliminate empty words and phrases: To avoid wordiness, combine two or more sentences to form one compact sentence.

Example:
Wordy: The headlights were bashed in and there was some superficial damage to the body. Otherwise, the mini-van seemed to be in excellent condition.
Concise: Aside from bashed-in headlights and superficial damage to the body, the mini-van seemed to be in excellent condition.

Reduce clauses to phrases and phrases to single words:
Wordy: The pine forest, which was glazed with shimmering ice, offered breathtaking silence.
Concise: The pine forest, glazed with shimmering ice, offered breathtaking silence.
Wordy: For her birthday, Shirley received a gown made of taffeta.
Concise: For her birthday, Shirley received a taffeta gown.

Use strong verbs as opposed to weasel verbs that suck the power from your sentences:
Weak verbs such as "is, has, took, gave and make," lengthen sentences needlessly. Verbs such as "kindle, carve, and race" invigorate sentences quickly and efficiently.
Wordy: The carpenters made slow advancement, and building costs were making a steady climb.
Concise: The carpenters advanced slowly and building costs climbed.
Wordy: The janitor’s duty is to lock up the school and check to see whether all windows are closed.
Concise: The janitor locks up the school and checks that the windows are closed.

Use the active voice to strengthen your sentences
The active voice stresses the actor in a sentence, whereas the passive voice stresses the receiver. Since the passive voice results in unnecessary clutter without making writing more direct, and forceful, use the active voice.
Wordy: The house was painted by the students.
Concise: The students painted the house.
Wordy: The apartment buildings were leveled by the hurricane.
Concise: The hurricane leveled the apartment buildings.

Eliminate expletive constructions: An expletive construction is a sentence that begins with "there" or "it" and postpones the sentence’s subject. Even though expletive constructions are effective in showing a change in direction, they frequently produce wordiness.
Wordy: There are three books lying open on the table.
Concise: Three books lay open on the table.

I hope I have given you insight into checking your own writing to improve its readability.

Available now from Champagne Books

Bio: Carol lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with her hero of almost fifty years. Writing was never on her radar screen until she faced a serious health issue and needed distraction. She began reading romance novels, discovering the tales seemed to feed the same threads-boy meets girl, conflict breaks them apart but problem resolution leads to a happy ending. She longed for more intensity on the characters’ journey. Thus None So Blind germinated in her mind. Her belief that this story would be her only writing venture proved faulty when Undercover Trouble ripped onto her keyboard, followed by many other romance stories.

Visit Carol on the web at: http://carolmcphee.webs.com/

N is for Narrative

2011-02-24T19:57:00.000-06:00

This week I am very pleased to present guest blogger Fiona McGier who will tell us a bit about Narrative.

Narrative: the art or practice of narration
Narration: the act of narrating
Narrate: knowing, akin to Latin, gnoscere...to recite the details of a story.
So a narrative is a story that is told. No judgment, no arguing about whether or not it is a fiction or non-fiction story...just a story. We are all narrators of narratives.

Mom: What did you do at school today?
Kid: Well, I didn't like the book we were reading in class so...
A narrative.

Two good friends having lunch:
So, what's been going on in your life?
Well let me tell you...
A narrative.

Since we are authors, the only difference is that our narratives are told via the written word, and not usually in person, unless we are lucky enough to be invited to do a reading and book-signing somewhere. But most will be told our narratives by the act of reading our words. And the only judgment that will matter is whether or not the reader enjoys the story that is being told. The onus is on us to tell a good narrative, one that will capture the reader's interest and make them shut the book saying, Damn, that was good! I wonder what else this author has written.

What are the elements of a good narrative? How do you engage your reader so that your story comes alive, the characters become real people, and what has existed only in your brain, now can take on life in someone else's imagination?

First of all, a narrative has to tell a story that engages the reader, and the way to do that is to reach into the heart and mind of the reader and make her care about your characters. One of the best ways to do that is to incorporate some kind of lesson about life into the story, so the reader will identify with what is being learned by the hero and heroine.

The characters themselves must be interesting people also. Enough background information needs to be presented gradually, so that the reader will enjoy reading about the changes that occur in the personalities of the protagonists as they face the various experiences in the narrative. The reader must be drawn to care about what happens to the characters, so the details of the narrative will be eagerly consumed.

Another factor to consider is that of wish-fulfillment, since what we write is fiction, and many readers are looking to experience vicariously something they might never actually have to, or want to face. I will probably never meet a shape-shifter or a vampire, but I like to read about them. I can't ever be a young career woman again, but I enjoy reading about someone else's adventures in life, especially their romances.

*****

In Secret Love, the narrative is about a female government agent, a spy, who has long ago learned to play by the rules that state that no emotions are allowed to interfere with the job. She has taught herself to not feel anything, and it has kept her alive. What happens when she meets a man who insinuates himself into her core, reaching into her long-impervious emotions, to make her fall in love with him? If emotions are dangerous, love can be deadly.

Buy Secret Love at: Whiskey Creek Press

Fiona McGier is a very busy happily-married woman who works multiple jobs to help with the college costs for her 4 young adult children. In her "spare" time she tirelessly promotes her books, which include her Reyes Family Romances series about a large Hispanic family, and her paranormal short stories which have appeared on various sites. She had a new book come out in January, has finished the edits on one to come out in April, and has just signed a contract for another erotic romance. She stays up very late at night to write the stories that swirl around in her head until she writes them. She hopes you enjoy reading them as much as she enjoys writing them.

Find out more at: http://www.fionamcgier.com/

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-02-21T21:30:00.000-06:00

I've been honored by author Sandra Cox with the Stylish Blogger Award. I am supposed to post a link back to Sandra's blog.

And I’m supposed tell you seven secrets about myself. Oh, boy. I’m not sure I have seven secrets. Here goes:

1. I have a secret desire to speak Italian.
2. I worked as a semi-professional folk musician for ten years. (Semi-professional means I played for the love of the music, not the money.)
3. I once bought a car for $50.00 and ran it for two years.
4. I got over my fear of heights by taking a hot air balloon ride over Sedona, Arizona.
5. I talk to my cat as if she is another person, and sometimes I wait for an answer.
6. I harbor the dream of winning the lottery, buying a big, old house on the eastern shore, and opening a writer’s retreat.
7. I almost got married once, but then realized it was probably more important that I breathe.

Now, I get to nominate other bloggers for the honor.

My nominees are: Kimberley Dehn/Kept by Cats…Writer Interrupted and Lynn Romaine/Women Writers Underground.

M is for...?

2011-02-17T21:30:00.000-06:00

This week I'm very pleased to welcome award winning, multi-published mystery and suspense author Billie Williams.

~*~

M is for ?

According to Sue Grafton in her Alphabet Series, it is for Malice, but it appears to be for money. As she works her way through the alphabet hungry fans await her next novel and her next and …What will she do when she finishes the alphabet? That's only twenty-six novels. Surely she has more than those in her idea file?

Will Grafton switch like Janet Evanovich and begin another series while she's immersed in her alphabet series. The numbers game for Evanovich certainly could go on longer than the alphabet, but she's preparing a new path in case Stephanie Plum or one of her other characters leaves her high and dry or fans tire of her mis-adventures.

Series authors are faced with a myriad of interesting choices. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to murder off Hercule Poirot, because he was tired of writing him, he was inundated by furious fans complaints. "How dare he?" Apparently, fans rule and he brought Hercule back from the edge. As an author you have to judge if you have the passion to carry one with your much loved character or like the famed Quarterback – Bret Favre—hang it up while fans still care.

Careers, accidental sleuths are two of my choices. Like numbers they could go on forever. M is for murder. When M is for Mystery, mayhem, and money, but Money Isn't Everything, as CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) Mary March discovers in one of my mystery novels by the same name.

Exploring characters brings me to career choices, which brings me to who this character might need to help out of a bad situation…sometimes it's the protagonist's own problem, but not always. In the modern mystery M is usually for murder. The why could be greed, revenge, or something esoteric as an imagined affront, perhaps.

Another prolific author who doesn't really write series, but utilizes the same main characters for protagonist and helpers for every case—except villain and victims she connects her stories by the 'body' of evidence, literally. Patricia Cornwell uses the human body of the victim or victims and what a villain could leave behind. She peels away the layers of evidence like a cook peeling apart a head of cabbage for cabbage roll ups (pigs in the blanket to some) one leaf/layer at a time. Still in every one of her novels M equals murder. Albeit, of a different sort with a myriad of different clues. Who could have guessed your body could reveal so much about you in life and in death.

M is for "Murder She Wrote," Jessica Fletcher, aka, Angela Lansbury, similarly, never tells the same tale twice, but always through her sleuth—the endearing Ms. Fletcher with her helpers such as the Doc or the Sheriff, but, nonetheless, different. Did you know her books, also titled Murder She Wrote, are authored by—not Angela Lansbury as you might expect, but Jessica Fletcher. Why? Name recognition perhaps. When fans from her television series look for her books they think Jessica not Angela.

When we think of Patricia Cornwell we may think of Kay Scarpetta, but not necessarily expect her to be an author as she plays a forensic pathologist where Jessica Fletcher plays author/teacher. Surely, when we think "Rizzoli and Isles," the television show, we don't think of Tess Gerritsen and Lisa Gardner though they are the authors who created them.

The mystery is a different sort of venue for an author. Name recognition could easily be for the character rather than author. It could even be the cat from The Cat Who…series by Lillian Jackson Braun, who at 95, penned her latest The Cat Who Had 60 Whisker's, and seems to be losing her fan base. Is it time for her to give up the craft they question…I say if she is still writing at 95 then her books are a collector's item and a tribute to her spunk and rectitude. Amazon is promoting her next book to be published in the year 2025. That's seventeen years from now and you can pre-order it. Would anyone? Will Braun be writing it or one of her relatives? As with the Light In The Attic Series – by VC Andrews, the stories never were as good, never kept the fan base VC originally collected. The question will always be, will the next be as good as the original author's without her/his input?

I doubt the next well-knit project of Debbie McComber would face similar dissention, but you never know, because M certainly is for mystery when it comes to fan based loyalty. Mystery writers deal with a very quixotic population. Intelligent and discerning, they want a good mystery whether it's about murder or myth.

Coming March 1

Billie A Williams is author of July Heat available March 1, 2011 and an award-winning, multi-published, author of more than 30 mystery and suspense novels. She also writes poetry and non-fiction. She has four highly acclaimed non-fiction books on the art and craft of writing creatively, and will soon have one on writing the mystery (Whodunit? A Mystery Writer's Primer) available for purchase. Find out more about the author, join her unique Mystery Novel of the Month Book Club or take her 10-week writing class on line, by going to her websites at http://www.billiewilliams.com/ or http://writingwide.com/

L is for Layering

2011-02-10T20:48:00.000-06:00

This week, our next stop on the Writer's Alphabet blog brings us to L - for Layering. I want to welcome fellow author and good friend, Kimberley Dehn.

Layering brings depth, drama, conflict and surprise to a simple, straight forward plot that, without twists and turns, will bore your reader: a cardinal sin!

Layering means constructing your story in stages, bringing first-draft, one-dimensional characters to life; splashing color across your scenery. Layering connects scenes and subplots, and gives cohesion to your character’s goals, motivations and conflicts as the plot thickens. It strengthens your story by slowly peeling away the apple skin to reveal the core hides a rare diamond. Layering divulges your mousy banker’s wife character wears red lingerie and gets a thrill from shoplifting. It exposes the body lying beneath an award-winning garden.

How you layer your story is unique to each author. For me, after I’ve sketched out each chapter with plot, scenes, characters and conflicts all doing what I want them to do, I then begin my second draft. Revision is layering. I look at my plot and think, how can I complicate this simple idea? I know more about my characters in the second draft than I did in the first, so when I revise my plot I also revise my characters to have them connect and enhance one another; to add depth and diversity.

In my first draft my bankers wife accompanied her ambitious husband to a company picnic at the home of his employer, the bank president, but I did nothing more with her. In my second draft, I have her steal a pretty bracelet. My initial intention is to cause her husband grief when he finds out. But then I realize I can have her wear that bracelet to a garden club event where one of the members recognizes the bracelet as belonging to her sister who is rumored to have run away with her married lover. The bracelet is a one-of-a-kind valuable heirloom; something her sister is never without. Her sister is missing. The woman demands to know how the banker’s wife got the bracelet, which puts the banker’s wife in a bad position as she stole the bracelet from inside the bank president’s house. Hm!

My first draft sketched my kleptomaniac banker’s wife as a chink in her ambitious husband’s armor, but through layering I realized her petty theft thrills were an ideal catalyst to unearth a murder and the desperate actions of the murderer hiding in plain sight.

Layering is also done with descriptions to enable your reader to see your fictional world in living color. It daubs in the five senses (my own characters rarely breathe before my final draft). Stilted dialogue is massaged to sound natural and also to define each character. Foreshadowing is blended in, alluding to in the first chapter what will be revealed in act three.

If I’m working on a complicated plot, I will take each subplot one at a time and follow it through the entire story, looking for ways to enhance the other plot threads. Layering in stages also helps you to balance a scene originally written with excessive narrative, dialogue or description. Layering applies not only to adding to strengthen your story, but also subtracting. Tweaking. Cutting away the excess to hone your plot and characters into the essential of what is necessary to tell your story without a single word more.

Things to consider when you layer:

Scenes: each scene must serve a purpose. If it reads more like an information dump, take it apart and weave the information into other, stronger scenes. Also, is your scene visible in that your reader is able to see what your character sees?

Characters: do the primary characters have solid goals, motivations and conflicts? Are they interconnected and conflicted to build strength? Give your secondary characters something important to do. A waitress serving your character can also innocently reveal a vital clue. Do your characters possess five senses? When they sip that latte, will your reader taste the vanilla flavoring? Will a revolving overhead fan give the character a chill, or waft a familiar perfume into their nostrils that may reveal a clue?

Layering is an essential part of bringing your story to life. Plot arcs are defined. Character flaws are revealed. The stage is set and the plot thickens!

~ * ~

Kimberley Dehn’s debut novel, SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, a romantic comedy, finaled for a 2009 EPIC e-Book Award and acquired several pre-published awards for best novel. “I love offbeat comedy and sassy dialogue. If you’re looking for a poignant story steeped in true to life…you won’t find it under my name. I want my readers to suspend belief and just have a laugh out loud good time.”

Kim is also the creator of The Character Interview, and Launching the Novel workshop, and has written numerous articles for novice writers. She also wrote book reviews for Romance Forever magazine. Besides her addiction to storytelling, Kim enjoys photography (check out the shadow ‘cleavage’ on my book cover), traveling, and is a passionate animal lover who is determined to save the world, one kitty at a time.

Kim is currently putting the finishing touches on layering her latest comedy. Stay tuned!

http://www.kimberley-dehn.com/
http://keptbycats.blogspot.com/
http://www.wings-press.com/Bookstore/Southern%20Exposure.htm

Valentine Blogging

2011-02-10T14:20:00.000-06:00

I'll be blogging on Saturday, February 12 at The Long and Short Reviews and Goddess Fish Party Promotions Pavilion. Please drop by and join me and the other authors for a fun chat. Click on the graphic to follow the link.

To visit Long and Short of It, click here: http://lasrguest.blogspot.com/

To visit Goddess Fish Pavilion, click here: http://goddessfishparty.blogspot.com/

Hope to see you.

Linda

K is for Killing...Off Characters

2011-02-03T21:23:00.000-06:00

This week I welcome author K.D. Pitner who talks about how we authors go about killing off characters.

K is for Killing… Off Characters!

Last night, like every Tuesday, I fired up my laptop and tuned my TV to one of my guilty pleasures. As I listened to the introduction of 1000 Ways to Die, I began to think about the many possibilities that could be used to get rid of one of my new characters. He had become rather tiresome, you see. He was neurotic, arrogant, and generally unpleasant. I have tried to find story paths that will grant him a few more pages of life but in reality, I didn’t have the desire to save his poor pitiful soul. Truth be told, he really wasn’t helping further my plot anymore. I gotta whack him.

Now that I had made that decision, I was left with the how, when, where, and why of carrying out my nefarious plan. Poor guy. He never saw it coming.
First I looked at why I was killing him off. As I said, he wasn’t helping further my story line. He had begun to grate on my nerves in that way that only a tired character can. As an added bonus, he had character traits that I could see in myself. His death would not be a senseless one after all! By killing this character off, I could maybe, just maybe, smite those character traits that I loathe in my own personality.

While I am almost always happy and was raised never to be arrogant because there is always someone out there better (my mother’s words), I am hopelessly neurotic. If a situation has the remote possibility of having a bad outcome, I can worry myself into seeing at least ten different paths to get there. The sad thing is that this particular skill only got worse after I had children. It had to be stopped!

As I wrote, keeping in mind that this character’s life was in my hands or, rather, my words, the questions of where and when came almost too easily. My problem was the how. How was I going to off this guy and make it believable yet interesting? I had a million different methods at my disposal but none of them felt right. Lost in the thought of how I was going to make this character take that long dirt nap, I glanced at my TV.

When I get into a good groove while writing, a nuclear bomb could go off beside me and I would not notice. I had been so focused on the scene I was crafting that I had not been paying attention to my show. As I looked at the TV, I saw a gentleman who, through his own stupidity (most of the scenarios on 1,000 Ways to Die are based on stupidity so I am not intentionally being harsh), met the most interesting and realistically probable death I had ever seen. It was perfect!

I had answered all my questions. I began writing and, a few pages later, my character met his maker. It shouldn’t be that easy. I mean, he had a life. In the little universe I created, he had friends and enemies. He had family. He had passions and desires and plans for the future – a future I took away from him. Great! Now I had guilt!

So why did I do it? Why did I rob this character of his future? The easy answer is because I could. I held that power! He was a pawn in my tiny created reality and I could smite him or grant him his deepest, darkest wishes with a few strokes of the keys on my keyboard. Yet the reality was this character had served his purpose.

Every author has their own method for creating their characters and for plotting their demise. Some are grand and well thought out methods while others, like mine, are simple. I kill the characters that have aspects of me I want to conquer – lust, greed, gluttony, naivety, etc. – and that no longer serve my storyline. The important thing to keep in mind is how this death going to further the story. Can your story be told without that particular character dying? If so, why is that character’s death important? Has their story line died out? What if that character lived? How would the story go from there? Answer these questions. Examine the motivations. Then, once you have done everything you’ve read about on how to craft (and kill) characters, find your own method – that one that works for you. You will craft a more believable story and your readers will devour it and return to see what new and inventive realities you have created!

~ * ~

Bio: K.D. Pitner lives in the beautiful, scenic Tennessee Valley with her husband and two children. From the age of two, K.D. entertained family members with her stories, often explaining the intricacies of Heaven and how she came to be here on earth with her parents.

Her first novel, Darker Shades of Midnight, is due to be released August 2011 by Champagne Books.

When not writing, she also enjoys gardening, playing the piano and violin, and doting over her four- legged babies. She is the human mother of a very co-dependent kitten (Ernie) named after one of her favorite authors, Ernest Hemmingway.

On the rare occasion that she has free time, she loves to catch up on the most recent vampire movies and novels. She is a "True Blood" fan and never misses an episode.

In addition to her website at kdpitner.webs.com, you can contact K.D. directly via email at kdpitner@yahoo.com.

2011-01-31T21:31:00.000-06:00

Love, Sam is now available in trade paperback at
Champagne Books.

Great News!

2011-01-30T23:28:00.000-06:00

Great news to share! Champagne Books has contracted my mainstream romance novel, Wake-up Call, for March, 2012 publication.

J is for Just

2011-01-28T10:40:00.000-06:00

I'm very pleased to welcome multi-published author and editor Judy Griffith Gill to be with us today to talk about 'Just' and other words that will send your editor screaming from the room. Welcome, Judy.

Just—

By Judy Griffith Gill

http://www.editsbyjudy.blogspot.com/
http://www.jggbooks.com/

I just want to tell you I about the letter I just got a from my sister. She said they have just experienced a fall of three centimeters of snow on the streets of Vancouver, BC, which just about never gets more than that, and when it does come, it’s just so rare nobody knows how to drive in it and cars just slide down hills, through intersections, just smashing and banging into each other. The news stations are just leaving other reporting to later, just keeping their cameras focused on crashes, which are mostly just fender-benders. She said, “All morning, it just kept falling and falling, and didn’t stop just until about an hour ago and now every bush and shrub and tree is just covered with white. It’s pretty, but I just don’t like snow.

Okay, let’s rewrite that: Moments ago I got a letter from my sister bout the three centimeters of snow lying on the streets of Vancouver, BC, where nobody knows how to drive in the stuff because it so seldom comes. TV stations ignore other news, keeping their cameras aimed at the skidding, sliding traffic, watching cars banging and smashing into each other. Luckily, most of the crashes are nothing more than fender-benders. “It kept falling and falling all morning,” she said, “stopping about an hour ago, leaving every bush and shrub and tree covered in white. It’s pretty, but I don’t like it.”

One hundred thirty-seven words v. ninety-nine words say basically the same thing, don’t they, without that non-useful word, “just”, which is nothing more than padding in the written page. Yes, we use it “just” about every day in speech, but the written word and the spoken word are definitely two different things. The word “just” in your writing, is mere clutter.

Other clutter-words and phrases to watch for because they weaken your sentences are: As a matter of fact, at the present time, seems, appears, somewhat, sort of, kind of, merely, all but, really, very, quite, extremely, severely, by virtue of, due to the fact that, for the most part, Something in the nature of, twelve noon, twelve midnight, six AM in the morning. Both noon and midnight are very clear statements of time. There is no need to add in the morning to 6 AM. Everyone knows AM is in the morning.

When you’ve finished writing your manuscript, do a global search for the word “that” and eliminate every one “that” you “possibly” can. This should read, …and eliminate every one you can.”

Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) advised writers tempted to use the word ‘very’, to replace it with ‘damn’ because the editor would delete it and make the sentence right. (Dare I say “just” right?)

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
— William Strunk Jr.
in Elements of Style

To this, I would add “Every word must show.”

Some valuable sites to visit:
http://www.garbl.com/
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/concise.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/words/tp/clutter_tips.htm
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/concise.html

Electronic reprints of many of Judy’s books are available at http://www.awe-struck.net/; http://www.belgravehouse.com/. Some previously unpublished books are now up on http://www.amazon.com/ at the Kindle site, and http://www.smashwords.com/

~ * ~

Bio:
Judy Griffith Gill has been writing for more years than she cares to count and has no plans to quit, although she has slowed down recently thanks to a job she enjoys, acquiring and editing for http://www.champagnebooks.com/. Her most recent titles are Heated Dreams, a paranormal erotic novel from http://www.carnalpassions.com/ and Mother Love, a woman's fiction novel available for download at http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=Awe-Struck&cart_id=25339.46653&product=Mother+Love&return_page=&user-id=&password=&exchange=&exact_match=exact

Judy Griffith Gill
Books available for download
at http://www.smashwords.com/ & Kindle
http://www.editsbyjudy.blogspot.com/

I is for Ireland or Imagination

2011-01-20T21:31:00.000-06:00

This week, I'm very pleased to welcome multi-published author Claudy Conn who shares her thoughts on Ireland--Imagination--and Travels.

~ * ~

I for Ireland or the imagination—which brings us to travel.

I have always found that visiting somewhere, anywhere takes on a life of its own and works its way directly into my writing.

A 30 minute ride to Office Supply (living in the country-anywhere is 30 minutes away), brings me into rows and rows of boring and endless paper, pens, printers and suddenly I look up and see two men discussing business. Are they partners? They appear displeased with one another. One of the men looks particularly angry and as I cast a sideways glance I look up and discover that he is staring with hatred at the other man’s back. Oh no, do we have murder in the making?

Having dinner out in the metropolis one evening and I bend to pick up my napkin. As I lift my head I see a surly man and his eyes are wide and appeared crazed as he stares across the room. He stares at a woman there who is bending to kiss the man she is with. I hear him mutter her name--I hear a low throttle of indignation in his throat. I know without being told that she is his wife. His hand goes to his waist and I see the gun tucked in at his belt. Will he pull it out? Does he mean her harm? Imagination.

Travel almost anywhere is what you make of it. A trip we took to Scotland demanded we explore Lock Ness and as we gazed at its rolling dark blue waves I was sure I could see Nessie and her newborn dipping down deep as they made their way back to the sea and her life-long mate.

In England, a trip to Stonehenge and the Standing Stones made my mouth drop. I moved in closer to stare at the monoliths in awe and it happened--I heard their call in the breeze and I went closer. What stories they whispered. I reached out and touched the stone expecting it to be cold but it wasn’t. It burned into my skin and I felt electricity shoot up my arm. There right before me were portals to a Faery Realm, and other dimensions and I couldn’t look away. Right there before me was mystery and ancient myths demanding my attention.

Travel. I stood in the ruins of what was once a castle in Ireland and the walls rebuilt themselves for me and I can see men in armor drinking ale and toasting one another after a long hard fight in the battlefield. I see their wenches cavorting with them. I hear the minstrel…

I stand before a Fairy Mound and I know that the tales that began long before the written word must be based in fact. I am a strong believer in the adage, ‘where there is smoke there is fire’. I see the fire and it is full with history. I know how the tales of leprechauns and winged tiny fairies emerged and my mind explores the possibilities.

As a writer, I have always found that research opened up my mind as I found the unexpected in ancient texts. Letters written by Lord Byron, Shelly, Keats and Moore taught me the language and style of the day.

Travel, any kind of travel is one of a writer’s greatest boons which directs us back to I—Ireland or if you will the imagination. If you are a writer, you have it in abundance—use it for it is your gift. If you are a reader, enjoy it, because that is our ultimate gift.

Hi: You might already know that writing is a must for me. Inspiration comes from everything, but especially from my hot Irish husband, our incredible daughter and her handsome husband.

And then not to be ignored is Cherokee, our ¾ wolf--her (now 3year old) l70 pound son, our horse and Mr. H the turtle.

I used to write regencies and historical romances (over 40 mass market bestsellers). “Spellbound-Legend” is the first installment in my paranormal Legend series.

Thanks so much for your interest and hoping you will stop by and say hello.

Claudy Conn

http://www.claudyconn.embarqspace.com/

Maxine faces danger everywhere she turns. She has to keep an evil and ancient woman at bay, and all the while be instrumental in stopping the Fae Wall from coming down.

So much depends on her developing her innate magical skills. So much depends on the two men who have entered her life—one, Julian, the moody High Druid Priest who awakened after a two hundred year coma, and the other, a Fae Prince who wants to protect and keep her for his own. Maxie has decisions to make…

Available from Wings ePress.

H is for Hook

2011-01-13T23:07:00.000-06:00

This week, I welcome author Celia Yeary who talks to us about Hooks.

~*~

HOOKS FOR BOOKS - by Celia Yeary

"It was a dark and stormy night…" No, no, never begin a story with the weather. The reader will skip ahead and look for action or characters, or heaven forbid, close the book. Okay, let's see. "I was falling, falling…and then I woke up." Nope, I remember, now, NEVER open a book with a dream--or an alarm clock or phone ringing. What about something really funny? For example, "Nearing the counter with a full tray, her foot slipped on spilled…." Uh, oh. That's on the list of no-no's, too.

Such a list exists, in fact. The admonitions may vary slightly, but editors are programmed to stop reading a submission after the first sentence or first paragraph if she/he sees these red flags. The nineteenth-century Gothic novels opened with long brooding descriptions of the weather, or a monologue recounting the entire genealogy of the family in the story, enough to make one's eyes glaze over.

In today's world, the reader wants and deserves action, the inciting incident, the reason for the story, and he wants it right away. In some manner, the opening sentence or first paragraph or first chapter must give the reader what he wants--"What is this novel about?"

Grabbing the attention of an editor you'd like to impress or a reader you'd like to keep is an art form all its own. Books galore sit on shelves or can be found on-line that help the budding author or the experienced one who wants a refresher course learn a bit more about a good beginning.

I once won a little contest on a blog with the opening line of my first release. First lines from ten romance novels were listed and readers voted on the best opening. This is the winning line (mine): If I'd known running away would be this hot and this dirty, I'd have stayed home. (first line from All My Hopes and Dreams, a Western Historical Romance.) But I will admit a judge for an RWA contest in which I entered the first chapter took off points for "this weak beginning." Hmmm.

However, what does my first line tell the reader? A woman is running away (from whom and why?), and the woman obviously is a little fastidious. In my humble opinion, this line met the criteria to set up the story. Plus, an editor liked it because she offered me a contract in three weeks.

Here are the beginning lines from four different romance novels.

1. It was well known around Russellville, Alabama, that Tommy Lee Gentry drove like a rebellious seventeen-year-old, drank like a parolee fresh out, and whored like a lumberjack at the first spring thaw. (The Hellion, LaVyrle Spencer.

2. He'd known all day something was about to go down, something life-changing and entirely new. ( Montana Creeds: Dylan, Linda Lael Miller.

3. Sister Bernadette Ignatius and Tom Kelly sat in the back seat of a black cab, driving from Dublin's airport through the city. (What Matters Most-Luanne Rice)

4. "Rachel! Rachel!" Ella called in the high-pitched panic voice that usually preceded bad news. (Texas Honor-Debra White Smith)

These opening lines come from Best-Selling authors. Do we need to pay closer attention to the novels we read? Go to a bookstore, find a shelf of best-sellers in romance, and open several to study the first page. Just read the first line.

Make a list of the kind of hooks that interest you in a book. Your list may be the same as mine.

1. Attention-getting
2. Exciting
3.Pulls me into the story
4. Straight forward
5. Brief and punchy
6. Rouses curiosity
7. Emotionally charged
8. A declarative sentence

Hooking your reader is not easy, but with a little self-study, you can improve your chances with editors and nail that contract. With your next or current WIP, try writing five opening sentences and ask fellow authors or your critique partners help you select one.

Good luck and happy writing--
Celia Yeary

~*~

Celia Yeary is a seventh-generation Texan, and her life revolves around family, friends, and writing. San Marcos has been her home for thirty-five years. She has five published romance novels, five “coming soon” novels, short stories in anthologies, articles, and essays with a local magazine. The author is a former science teacher, graduate of Texas Tech University and Texas State University, mother of two, grandmother of three, and wife of a wonderful, supportive Texan. Celia and her husband enjoy traveling, and both are involved in their church, the community, and the university.

http://www.celiayeary.com/

The Cameron Sisters: Book I--TEXAS PROMISE-Desert Breeze Publishing

Blurb:

After two years, Jo Cameron King’s life as a widow abruptly ends when her husband returns home to Austin. Unable to understand her angry and bitter husband, she accepts a call to travel to the New Mexico Territory to meet her dying birth father whom she knows nothing about. Her plan to escape her husband goes awry when he demands to travel with her.

Dalton King, believing lies his Texas Ranger partner tells him about Jo, seethes with hatred toward his wife. Now he must protect Jo from his partner’s twisted mind, while sorting out the truth. Jo’s bravery and loyalty convince him she’s innocent. But can they regain the love and respect they once shared?

Making the Turn - Wings ePress

Starting over at age thirty-nine is no picnic under any circumstances, but the task is daunting for Sara Daniels. Living an affluent lifestyle her entire adulthood in Dallas does not prepare her for instant bankruptcy, especially if a philandering husband dies suddenly, leaving her penniless, debt-ridden, and homeless.

Planning on moving in temporarily with her cantankerous mother in the small town of Del Rey, Sara faces more problems than she can handle. During the long, hot summer, she and her daughter, her mother, and a handsome distraught widower and his charming young son learn they can have second chances.

G is for Genre

2011-01-06T22:12:00.000-06:00

This week, The Writer's Alphabet blog returns with thoughts about genre from author, Therese Kinkaide.

I’m thinking about pie. We’re past Christmas, but we’re still knee-deep in holiday stuff, and some of that stuff is dessert. In my family, dessert is pie. Everything else is just Christmas goodies to snack on before dinner and pie.

This year may have been the first in my memory where there was no pumpkin pie at the family Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house. Now, this is not a problem for me, as I don’t eat pumpkin pie. But I found it amazing that a group of twenty-ish people who normally eat pumpkin pie easily adjusted to different desserts this year.

So many different desserts, it’s hard to choose. It’s hard to choose which to make, and it’s hard to choose which to eat. It’s a big choice. Which calorie and fat gram-laden dessert will it be?

Kind of like writing and reading. Dictionary.com defines genre as (among other definitions pertaining to art) ‘of or pertaining to a distinctive literary type.’ I’ve been a voracious reader all of my life, and I attempted to write my first book when I was in 5th grade. (Hmm. That’s interesting. My son is in 5th grade. I could see him attempting to write a book.)

However, as much as I read and as long as I’ve been writing, I didn’t become involved in the publishing world until January 2008 when my first book, Luther’s Cross, was accepted for publication with WingsEPress.com. Before I began actively searching for a publisher and before I signed my contract with Wings, I didn’t realize how many different genres and subgenres exist. If asked, I probably would have said there were four genres: romance, mystery, science fiction and women’s fiction.

Now that I spend a great deal of time researching small press websites and a great deal of my time reading (still) I have seen many genres and subgenres. I don’t often go to a bookstore or library and look for a specific genre to browse. I might go in search of a particular book or a particular author, regardless of what genre the book is.

I recently read a Barbara Delinsky blog entry about the danger of writing in a particular genre for so long that a writer becomes defined as only that type of writer. Barbara Delinsky started as a romance writer, (I started reading her books when she wrote romance novels) but she’s progressed to women’s fiction. Still many readers consider her a romance writer, and bookstores still sometimes place her novels on the romance shelves.

When I sit down to write, I don’t think in terms of genre. I write the story inside my head. I write the story my characters are telling me I need to write. Granted, I generally write women’s fiction, but I don’t want to be held to a specific genre. My first book, Luther’s Cross, is billed as contemporary romance and my new book, Fairytale, is suspense/thriller. However, I think they both also fall under the women’s fiction title. I’m also working on a time travel romance, and I have two young adult romances in progress too.

There’s much debate over traditional publishing versus small press, which is very often POD (print on demand.) I have had great experiences with my publishers (WingsEPress and LLDreamspell) and particularly in regard to genre, I think small press has definite advantages. Writers have more freedom to move from genre to genre and aren’t expected to produce book after book in the romance or mystery or horror category.

That freedom allows us writers to write from our hearts, which results in heart-felt, compelling, intense (insert your own adjective to describe your book in your genre) books. Those are the books we want to put in our readers’ hands, and those are the books our readers want to read and recommend to their friends and family. Those are the books that we hope will keep readers coming back for our latest releases.

~*~

Therese Kinkaide, author of Luther’s Cross and Fairytale and short story The House on Ash Street, which appears in LLDreamspell’s anthology Mysteries, Dreams & Darkness

http://www.theresekinkaide.com/
http://www.wingepress.com/
http://www.lldreamspell.com/

Fantastic News!

2011-01-04T18:20:00.001-06:00

Time for a happy dance. I just received word that I've been nominated for Author of the Year at Champagne Books. Woohoo! I am honored and humbled, because I know the caliber of writing that is produced by my fellow authors at Champagne.

And the Beat Goes On

2010-12-31T10:20:00.000-06:00

Saying goodbye to 2010.

New Year's Eve--a time to look back at the past year. It's been a time of continued unrest in our world. If one good thing has come of the political climate in our country it's that more people are now politically involved and vocal. We're all still reeling from the earthquake economy that continues to shift beneath us. Our spirits and patience have been tried and tested. And, yet--we're still here!

It's a time to also look back with gratitude for the blessings of 2010. I have much for which to be grateful. I still have a job. I have a nice apartment. I have the love of a fantastic family and irreplaceable friends. And, of course, I have Binky, my constant cat companion. 2010 was a year of achievement as four of my novels were published between January and November. Whew!

Welcoming 2011.

Ready? Set? It's time to look forward to the coming year. Time to make resolutions (half of which I know I won't keep. Okay, more than half.) I've decided to set goals instead of resolutions. Resolutions seem so stiff, set in cement. Goals are somewhat flexible and can change. That way I have something to work toward, and I won't feel like such a failure when I run out of steam halfway into the year and my resolutions are nothing more than vague memories.

I read my 2011 horoscope yesterday. I don't put a lot of stock in horoscopes, but I want to believe this one. It said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that I would see a big shift in my career goals and would achieve acclaim and prosperity. My interpretation: A best seller with a big advance. So that's my lofty goal for 2011. My lesser goals include: (1) getting two books under contract for publication; (2) finishing two more manuscripts that are now in progress; (3) and the ever present and oft forgotten goal--to lose weight and become more healthy. (This was formerly a resolution that never made it past Valentine's Day. Maybe it'll have a better chance as a goal?)

So, what does 2011 have in store for my readers? Love, Sam will be coming out in paperback, probably in February. I don't have the exact date from the publisher just yet. I have three completed novels that I'll be sending out to agents or publishers in the coming months: Unconditional, Act of Contrition, and Wake-up Call. I'm working on a Christmas-themed romantic comedy that I hope I can have ready for publication next Christmas. It's going to be a busy year.

Here on One Woman's Write, I'll be continuing to post The Writer's Alphabet, featuring posts by some fantastic guest bloggers/authors. So be sure to check in especially on Fridays for their words of wisdom about writing and publishing.

My wishes for our world are for peace and the understanding that we humans are more alike than we are different. I wish for a balanced economy and for leaders who will make responsible decisions for the betterment of all (regardless of on which side of the aisle they are seated.)

Here are my New Year's wishes for all of you as we cross the finish line of 2010 and set ourselves for the start of 2011: I wish you love, laughter, good health, and that you have all you need and get at least some of what you want.

Linda

Merry Christmas to All

2010-12-24T11:06:00.001-06:00

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with love, laughter, good health, and safe travel. The Writer's Alphabet blog will resume on Friday, January 7. See you all then.

Linda

F is for First Person

2010-12-17T22:13:00.001-06:00

This week I'm happy to welcome author Karyn Lyndon who shares her thoughts on writing in First Person.

When I selected Good in Bed as my summer beach read in 2001, it wasn’t because I had heard of the author—this was Jennifer Weiner’s debut novel. I also didn’t choose it because of the way it was written. After all, I hadn’t read it yet. It wasn’t the genre, either. I’d never even heard of chick lit. Nor did I pick it because of its cover.

What compelled me to spend $12.95 for that book over all the others? It was the title! Who could resist the promise of a sexy read that the title inferred? As it turned out the book featured very little sex. Good in Bed was the name of the column the main character’s ex-boyfriend wrote about how BAD in bed she was. But as I delved into Weiner’s easy-to-read first person writing style, I didn’t feel duped--it was love at first person!

What did I learn from her book? Well, the most obvious lesson is to spend some effort writing a title that sizzles. But what I really garnered from reading Good in Bed was the knowledge that I didn’t want to write Stephen King-ish horror stories in boring old third person like I’d done with my first attempt at novel writing. I wanted to write funny, contemporary stories where the main character seemed so real, reading the book was more like chatting with your best friend at Starbucks, or sneaking a peek at her diary.

As I read each chapter it felt like Cannie was talking directly to me. She shared the same self-deprecating comments that constantly circled my brain, topics like her less-than-perfect body and other familiar insecurities. The raw emotions, the funny asides, the lifelike twisting of events seemed more like actual anecdotes from the author than from a fictional character.

And I couldn’t wait to try it!

When I first sat down to write CurvyKathy31: Confessions of a Chat-aholic the words seemed to flow easier through my fingers. Not only did I now LOVE reading in first person—I loved writing in it, too. It was easy! And easy has always been my preference.

About half way through my manuscript I joined my local chapter of Romance Writer’s of America. At one of my first meetings the speaker said something that felt like lightening striking my heart. She explained that first person was a harder sell than third person. Harlequin didn’t even accept manuscripts written in first person. Now, while my intention had never been to write a romance novel, the speaker’s words hurt.

What could any editor or agent have against my personal favorite person? Still believing there must be readers out there just like me who couldn’t get enough of “I” pronouns and the acrylic-clear point of view of the main character, I eventually finished my book. On a chick lit email loop we began debating what to rename our Yahoo group. Publisher’s began to ask for light women’s fiction as though uttering the words “chick lit” would steal their souls. (This article seems to have taken a turn toward other letters in the alphabet--like C & L. Sorry. Back to F.)

Undaunted by the obvious prejudice against first person and all things chick lit, I began my second novel, For Richer or Repo. But this time I wanted more of a challenge. Maybe first person was TOO easy. (Nope, no such thing.) So I decided to write the first person book in more than one character’s point of view.

My critique group warned against it, proclaiming it would be too difficult to discern which character was speaking. But that was an easy fix! I just headed each scene with the POV character’s name. Just when I had settled on four characters telling their side of the story, a fifth one popped up wanting to tell his!

Yes, it was more difficult, but writing was never boring. When I felt too fatigued to go on, taking my place inside another character’s head always brought me new inspiration. And I must give credit to my critique group for challenging some of my word choices and keeping them true to each character.

So let’s recap my first person learnings. It’s fun to read, easy to write, harder to sell and I love it!

That’s about it. Oh, and now that memoirs are popular (I heart Jennifer Lancaster’s books) they have become my favorite source of reading material--also in what? FIRST PERSON!

Karyn Lyndon lives with her husband and son in North Texas. She spends her days editing advertising for a major retailer and nights writing humorous, romantic tales. Her debut novel, CurvyKathy31: Confessions of a Chat-aholic, is written in first person from one point of view. For Richer or Repo, her second published novel, is also written in first person but from five different characters points of view.

Visit Karyn's website at: http://www.karynlyndon.blogspot.com/

NOTE: I want to be sure to mention that Karyn's book, CurvyKathy31: Confessions of a Chat-aholic, has finaled for a 2011 EPIC e-Book Award. Good luck, Karyn. (though I should be cautious. We're in the same category. Last year, I congratulated a competitor, and she won!) Linda

E is for Editing

2010-12-10T10:39:00.000-06:00

This week I welcome author Jim Woods who lends his expertise on the subject of Editing.

WHO’S YOUR EDITOR?
by Jim Woods

There are three stages of editing before publication, with the initial stage, self-editing, being perhaps the most important. Once upon a golden time the gift of story telling, in handwritten script, or composed on old-fashioned typewriter keys, was all that was necessary to sell a story or a book. Someone from the publisher’s editorial staff worked closely with the writer in coaxing the promising tale into publishable form. Those good old days have joined the rest of ancient history.

Nowadays if the writer isn’t also the first-line editor, there may not be another reader. With your manuscript presumably complete, put it away for a week or two, and then read it objectively. Start by eliminating words. You can do it! Line through the words with a colored pen; hit the delete key. Take it out! Examine the copy word-by-word and take out all the words that really don’t have to be there. Sure, this is going to slim down the manuscript; that’s part of what we’re after. Look critically at each adjective. Make sure each of them imparts exactly your intended characteristic to the noun it modifies. Look at all the short, choppy sentences. Combine them. Vary the sentence lengths and patterns. Search out those favorite words you have used twice in the same sentence and four times on every page. Find a different word for ninety percent of them. Rewrite! There is nothing sacred about a first, or second or third draft. None of it is final until it goes to press.

Going to press is pushing the schedule a bit. It’s time to turn the manuscript over to your professional editor. Not your mother who’s an English teacher, and not your daughter who’s a psychology major. Of course you are going to impose on friends and family to read your Great American Novel. Of course they will shower you with accolades. Now seek out a real editor whose expertise and opinions will make your work saleable.

That editor may be a friend, or at least friendly, but more than likely you’ll see him/her as an adversary. It’s not his job to stroke and soothe. You need someone who can get down to the business of editing, unencumbered by personal feeling for the author. Choose wisely, based on the recommendation of other professionals. Once you have come to a professional and financial understanding, accept and act on his advice and criticism.

Review your editor’s corrections, make the ones you agree to or that the editor has convinced you should be made, and once again, re-write. Now, does this mean automatically the publisher of your choice will accept your story or novel without further change? An emphatic No! However, it does mean the publisher may take the time to read the story through simply because it was presented to him professionally in the first place. Let’s assume it is accepted. Now the publisher’s staff editor gets his crack at it.

Your independent editor would not have known which publication or publisher would wind up with your creation. Style guides are decidedly similar, but different publishers and organizations hold differing opinions on word usage and punctuation. As a writer myself, I once was exposed to a company editor whose first “rule” was that the word “albeit” was never to be used--period! Unfair? Dictatorial? Of course. However, to satisfy the editor who authorizes the payment to you, you’ll just have to take out his personal “albeits.” Publishers and Editors do not necessarily adhere to democracy.

That final editor and his staff also will do some fact checking if warranted, and the publisher’s legal expert will vet for libel, plagiarism, privacy invasion and copyright infringement. Finally, the copy editor will check the spelling of every word, even though the author originally employed his computer spell-checker. The author may have a say about substantive changes to his manuscript but is unlikely to get a voice in style and grammatical changes. Editors do not relinquish that control.

One time I sold a short story to a Canadian anthology. I had been thorough with the pre-editing and the story had been passed-on by a second editor. The setting was the southern region of the United States; the language proper for the time and locale. In the publisher’s final editing, two or three of my carefully selected words and phrasings had been Anglicized, an alteration necessary for that publisher’s primarily north-of-the-border market. It may not have destroyed my creation, but certainly sullied my story’s authentic Southern flavor. The editor had the last word, as usual. . . and the editor is always right.

<<>>

Jim Woods is an independent editor assisting book authors, small presses and corporations with line, style, and substance editing; applying his expertise to novels, short story collections, nonfiction and corporate image. Formerly, he was in-house Editor, Managing Editor and Contributing Editor with two commercial magazine publishers. His professional associations include American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA). He lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.
See his website: http://users.dakotacom.net/~jwoods

He is author of the writing tutorial, SO YOU WANT TO BE AN AUTHOR?
Gypsy Shadow Publishing: http://www.gypsyshadow.com/

And the fiction works, SHE SERPENT, GUNSHOT ECHOES, and ASSASSINATION SAFARI, Champagne Books: http://www.champagnebooks.com/

D is for Dialog--and Digital Voice Recorders

2010-12-02T23:06:00.000-06:00

As we continue your journey through The Writer's Alphabet, we have a discussion on D--for Dialog and Digital Voice Recorders presented by guest blogger, A.J. Maguire.

A.J. Maguire:

I'm going to be honest. If I see large hunks of exposition, my eyes sort of skim over it. Not because the writing is bad or anything, a lot of the times there's really great poetry mixed in with the prose, it's just that I want to see the characters in action. Dialog literally is action. It's the basic driving force of your plot and your novel. Dialog doesn't just tell us what's happening, it lets us see it. And it lets us get to know the characters better than any internal monologue ever could. Because it's what a man does that defines him and the same goes for our characters.

You can tell us all you want that Character Bubba is a snarky grump but until he opens his mouth and proves it, it's all a bluff. And I'm not meaning that you sit down and tag his lines with – “Shoulda seen the twit,” Bubba snorted gruffly. I'm not arguing tag lines because when it comes right down to it, nobody really cares about the he said/she said. What they really care about is what was said. It's about content. It's about the voice of your character coming to life on the page. And the only way you're going to get that is if you listen.

Something that helped me with this is a digital voice recorder. (Hence the title of this segment.) Last year for Christmas I bought this little nine dollar voice recorder from a pawn shop with the intentions of practicing reading my work out loud. I had been listening to Scott Sigler's podiobooks and he really inspired me to think outside the box of what I considered a traditional writer. So, I bought the recorder and started recording my rough draft as I was writing it. So at the end of the week, I would sit down and record what I had written. And then, during the rest of the week, I would listen. In my car (preferably when I was alone) or while I was doing dishes (headphones are wonderful assets) and it really helped me to keep my focus.

The unexpected bonus of this little experiment, however, was that I could literally hear where the dialog was wrong. I'd be elbows deep in soap and realize that Bubba would have said something a lot meaner to Mary Sue, not only because he's a snarky grump but because she'd just overheated the ships motor and now they're stuck and, for goodness sake he's still mad at her for blowing up his 20” flat screen TV two chapters ago.

On top of all that, I could hear if the phrases were all wrong for the time period, because we all know that dialog also paints the setting of a novel. There are real language differences that need to be shown in the dialog. You can't go having your 17th Century female say the equivalent of “OK”. It just wouldn't happen and every pettifogger in the world would have your brains on toast if you tried. Dialog has to be a reflection of each individual character and the setting around them. It has to be rife with conflict and personality and give the reader a certain respect for the characters involved. Because if your reader doesn't get involved in what is being said on the page, then they're likely to stop reading.

Author Bio:

A.J. Maguire's debut novel Sedition is due to be released January 2011 from Wings ePress http://www.wings-press.com/. Her second novel Witch-Born is set for release by Double Dragon Publishing in 2011 http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/. She is a proud military veteran and mother of one toddler who unwittingly listens to everything she writes (except the adult parts, she has some morals.) You can view more of her work at http://ajmaguire.webs.com/

C is for Conflict

2010-11-26T12:20:00.000-06:00

Today we continue our journey through The Writer's Alphabet with our feature post by author, Mary McCall who talks with us about Conflict. Please help me welcome Mary and share your thoughts.

C is for Conflict

Conflict can make or break a fiction work. It’s what keeps readers reading when it is added to characters they love and want to root for. So let’s do a simple breakdown of the types of conflict we can expect to face if we want to create a page-turner by constantly raising the stakes.

Internal conflict: this is your character’s fatal flaw or Achilles’ heel. Here we run into what should be a cardinal law of writing: God is the only perfectly infallible being in existence; therefore, characters should have flaws, weaknesses, and sometimes-unlikable traits. Readers don’t generally want to read about perfect characters. They can’t relate to them. They want to laugh with the hero or heroine, cry with him, overcome evil, find happiness… The hero shouldn’t be the strongest man in the world, but he should have just enough strength and/or ingenuity to win his most crucial battle. For a reader, there is no fun in an invulnerable hero. Readers like characters that have to fight hard and rely on their wits to overcome conflict (and they should be in conflict a lot).

As a writer, your story should test to the limits, your main character’s reaction under stress. Without vulnerability, your character will never show character to survive, triumph and overcome and learn something about himself along the way. Remember, Achilles had his heel, Superman has his kryptonite, the werewolf has his silver bullet … A little weakness makes the character more identifiable and sympathetic to the reader. Overcoming that weakness is what makes that character a hero or heroine. A bad habit that the character is trying to break will humanize him for the reader and increase tension and conflict. Remember, readers' love most the characters that they most strongly identify with--people like themselves. Readers want admirable characters who entertain them.

Now that you know your character’s internal conflict, grab a sledge hammer and bash it. That’s external conflict. That’s plot. If a character wants something but has no trouble obtaining it, you have no story. Thus, you need an antagonist, demon, or some other obstacle placed in the character’s way. Who most wants to stop the protagonist, and why? What motivates the villain? What does she/he have at risk? Are the actions she/he will take worthy of a respectable villain? And are both the protagonist and antagonist likely to be found in this setting? Are the protagonist and antagonist for the most part evenly matched? Does your antagonist have at least a few redeeming traits?

Overcoming one obstacle should lead the protagonist to another. Constantly raising the stakes, making the protagonist reach deep within him/herself to reach the final prize. Thus, as the story moves along, we see character emotional growth. And yes, character growth must happen. This has been known by great story tellers for centuries, but first recorded by Aristotle. He called it the “recognition and reversal” stage of drama and attributes it to the human need in the audience to see moral progress in life. The hero shouldn’t just save his life; he should also improve it by the end of the book. The reader can sit safely in a recliner, on the beach or wherever he/she chooses and experience the adventure along with your characters, feeling justice, love or whatever your character is aiming for has been met.

For those who write romantic fiction or fiction with romantic elements, I’ll mention one other conflict. That which exists between the hero and heroine. No relationship is perfect. There’s going to be a clash, misunderstanding, family enemy, or some conflict in the relationship. We can take this only so far. At some point, these characters must identify (even if it’s grudgingly) several things they can admire about each other – whether they mention this to the other or not. But if they hate each other from the beginning to the end of the story, you don’t have a romance. At some point, love has to enter the picture and become more important to the pair than whatever conflict exists between them.

This is part of my Purple Month contest. If you leave your e-mail in any response, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a .pdf copy of Highland Treasure on three days from now, and a drawing for a signed hardcopy of Highland Treasure and a Purple Goodies Box at the end of the month.

Take care and happy reading and writing!

Author Bio:

Mary writes humorous and adventurous historical romances. She is member of Romance Writers of America and served as the first PRO Coordinator for RWA; She is also a member of Hearts through History Romance Writers, of Celtic Hearts Romance Writers; of The Golden Network; FH&L RWA, and River City Romance Writer She is also a member of Savvy Authors, Sisters in Crime and the Malice in Memphis chapter of SinC. She loves history with a particular fondness for the Greek through Medieval periods. She is honored to have received the Legenda Aurea Service Award & Scholarship. Legenda Aurea, Latin for "the golden legend," is the highest service award presented by HHRW’s Executive Board to a member who has provided outstanding service to chapter and who has become a legend among the membership. Mary resides in Memphis, Tennessee with her Maltese who has a very Latin name, Regina Benita Catarina. You may visit her blog at www.marymccall.net, http://marymccall.wordpress.com or e-mail her at mary@marymccall.net. To get your copy of Highland Treasure, just click on the cover.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2010-11-25T01:10:00.001-06:00

B is for Backstory

2010-11-19T10:10:00.000-06:00

Today talented writing duo Angelica Hart and Zi will, in their own unique style, teach us a bit about Backstory.

A LITTLE COFFEE WITH YOUR CREAM?

Ah ha! Bet you are thinking this article is all about coffee or cream or even the juxtaposition of the usual into the unusual.

Z: Huh?
A: Go with it...
Z: Ooookay!

Well, we're actually going to discuss a book's backstory. Think of your novel as coffee and your backstory as cream. You usually add just a bit of cream to your coffee not the other way around, except for Zi, but that's a pot of another kettle.

Z: Huh?
A: Go with it...
Z: Ooookay!

Anywho, many novice writers are so anxious to share their research and development, they bog down the opening with as much information as they can.
Z: By the way don't you drink tea?
A: That's not the point...
Z: But...
A: Do you want to write this?
Z: Thought you'd never ask. (With a hip bump moves Angelica's chair aside until he is settled before and computer.)

The backstory is a vital part of plotting. It stimulates the story, and gives the characters motivation. After all, each character has a past and present, and a certain amount of that has to be conveyed. And, even though you might know this characters inside, backwards and upside down, the reader doesn't need to hear about the protagonist's fifth grade science project that blew up spewing purple dye all over Mrs. Greenspan. Unless, of course, it is vital to the story's conflict.

A: Hey wait, that wasn't a backstory but an actual event. You were in sixth grade when that happened, weren't you?"
Z: No comment. The case is still pending.

So, here are a few key factors to K I S S (Keep It Simply Simple) your way to the perfect amount of backstory.

KEEP -
While creating your character, make their history rich. Make certain you write down everything from your characters' most embarrassing moments to who they took to the senior prom and if they prefer chocolate to vanilla ice cream, and then, don't use anything but that which is pertinent to the story. Plus, only go back in time as far as is necessary. The opulence of your character will come through just because you know them so well. It will shine in their speech, their mannerisms, and the way they think.

IT -
There is always that IT factor in every story, the thing that is the crux of the story. For the present conflict to exist there must be something in the backstory that is relevant and must be told, and sometimes in great depth. Still, sprinkle it in, slowly, a bit at a time. It's like adding sugar to that ole coffee. Too sweet and people will make a face, or in a narrative just get bored and put the book down.

SIMPLY -
There are simply some great places you can add backstory that work better than others. The prologue is usually a great spot to drop a few spicy tidbits like cinnamon in your brew. Here you can tell rather than show more easily than anywhere else in the story. Using the character's memory is another great tool. Something current can trigger a recollection. Also, a flashback is great method of allowing the reader to see what had happened to create the present circumstance. One of the most basic conduits for the backstory is dialogue. Characters can reflect, explain, and address basic aspects of the plotline all while sitting across from each other having, well, a cup of coffee or climbing Mt. Everest, all depends on your story.

SIMPLE -
Remember simple is better. Don't be so enamored with your backstory that you distract from the action. Too much of it hinders the flow of the story. What had happened to set the plot in motion needs to be streamlined. Pare down your paragraphs and pages of information to a single line. Sum it up and place it strategically in the prose.

The backstory is the stimuli and the foundation of the book, but it is not the totality of the story, nor is it the pure action that keeps the readers moving along. So, when you ask yourself if you want a little plot with your backstory, remember to tell yourself to hold the cream.

A: Huh?
Z: I'm just tying it in to the beginning.
A: But...
Z: Hey, how about a cuppa?
A: You buyin'?
Z: Don't I always.

Angelica Hart and Zi
KILLER DOLLS
SNAKE DANCE
CHASING YESTERDAY
THE FABLE OF SIN-SIN-CINDERELLA Series
angelicahartandzi@yahoo.com
http://www.angelicahartandzi.com/
http://www.champagnebooks.com/

Bio: Creative synergy sizzled when the authors, from Delaware, USA, met and soon a literary partnership formed. They live several miles apart but meet every week day to dive into their collaboration of taking readers to new places and other worlds, to help them suspend reality, and to simply entertain.

Their combined accomplishments include book publications in print and/or electronic versions of eighteen titles, ten romance specific, EPPIE finalist for three books, Cecil Whig award, Hob-Nob Reader's Choice Award, written over 500 shorts with numerous published in both nationwide and small press magazines, articles published in various local, city and statewide newspapers, including four as a Guest Columnist in addition to trade articles. Both are members of various writing groups.

A is for Author

2010-11-11T21:43:00.000-06:00

Today I’m starting a new series of blog posts called The Writer’s Alphabet. Every Friday, I’ll post a blog, many by guest bloggers, featuring the next letter in the alphabet and some topic starting with that letter that pertains to writing. I’m kicking off the series with A is for Author.

Believe it or not, there is a distinction made between ‘writer’ and ‘author’. A writer is one who writes. An author is one who is published. At least that’s what I’ve been told, though I’m not sure every dictionary is that discriminating.

When I first started to write, I hesitated to even pronounce myself a writer. But, then, I finished a full manuscript and wrote those magical words ‘The End.’ I could claim the title now. The first time the words, “I’m a writer” came out of my mouth, they felt foreign and were, I’m sure, spoken at a whisper. I soon got better at saying it aloud and, before long, listed that first on my resume. I’m a writer and, oh, yeah, I do social work to pay the bills.

After groping in the dark, as the uninformed generally do, trying to find the next step in the process, I submitted my manuscript to Wings ePress. And within a few weeks, I opened an email that left me dumbstruck. It offered a contract to publish my book, And the Truth Will Set You Free. Once I had signed the contract, I received an email disclosing a password to the Author’s Only page on the website. I logged in and a new page opened. The announcement at the top read: Congratulations! You are now an author. I am now an author! But it wasn’t real until I got my cover art for that book, bearing the title and my name in bold print. Never mind the dance I did when I got the book in my hands.

You know that saying, “If I knew then what I know now…” Well, if I knew then what I know now, I’d shout from the rooftops, “I’m a writer.” Does having a work published make me an author? I don’t know. If you write something, you are the author of that work. I’m not big on distinctions that divide. I’m a writer. I author books. I’ve learned a lot along the way. But I don’t know it all. So I’ve invited some fellow writers/authors to guest blog over the next twenty-eight weeks on topics about writing. I expect to learn a lot, and I’ll bet you will, too. And, yes, I know there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. But we won’t be posting on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

So, I hope you’ll stop by on Fridays to garner some wisdom from my guest bloggers--fellow authors/writers--as we work our way through The Writer’s Alphabet.

Linda (9-time author, but always a writer first)

Remember

2010-11-10T21:58:00.000-06:00

On this Veteran's Day, my thoughts turn toward my father, Dale R. Rettstatt, Jr. He was a veteran of World War II and a soldier all his life.

He served with the 398th Infantry in Europe and earned a Purple Heart. Shrapnel in his neck and skull served as a constant reminder of his service, but he never complained, even when it was obvious he suffered one of the blinding headaches that would nearly cripple him at times. He continued to serve in the 430th U.S. Army Reserve in Brownsville, PA, retiring only shortly before he died in 1981.

My father never talked much about the war, at least not with us, his family. I don't know what he talked about over a beer with his buddies. I knew him to be a patient man, quiet--sometimes to the extreme. I always wondered about the young man who went off to war at the tender age of eighteen. What was that young man like? Did he laugh more easily? Did he talk more freely of his dreams? Did war change him, as it is known to do? I'll never know.

I knew my father as a soldier because he marched in the local parades with his Army Reserve Unit and prepared for two weeks of reserve camp every summer with the enthusiasm of a kid going to summer camp. He loved his country. He loved the Army.

And he loved his family. I knew him as a soldier, but I mostly knew him as Daddy--the man who snuck cookies to me and my sister when he came to say goodnight and tuck us in. The man who taught me to drive, even after I drove him for a block with two wheels on the sidewalk (long story). The man who rescued me from a college party gotten out of hand and then kept a straight face when I told my mother that, yes, I'd been drinking but only because someone spiked the punch. The man who spent an entire day (and made four trips to the hardware store) constructing a wooden frame for a hooked-rug wall hanging I'd made. In the end, the frame didn't fit. And it didn't matter. I'd spent the day with my dad.

A man who was steadfast, loving (in actions, if not in words), generous, dependable, quiet, and loyal. A man who had a wry sense of humor that, if you were fortunate, you got to glimpse.

On this Veteran's Day, remember the men and women who have served our country and those serving today.

Linda

New Release: Love, Sam

2010-11-01T21:05:00.001-05:00

Love, Sam is now available in e-book at Champagne Books. Just click the cover to read the blurb and excerpt (or to buy the book :).

Linda

The Inaugural Hot Dames & A Dude Writing Retreat

2010-11-01T11:02:00.000-05:00

I returned home last night from attending the Inaugural Hot Dames & A Dude Writing Retreat in Little Compton, Rhode Island. And, look--I brought home the word count trophy.

I had a blast with a fantastic group of talented and entertaining writers. And let's not even mention the setting and the food. Oh, okay. Let's. The house, complete with fireplace (and a few spiders, but that's another story) was a great setting for this retreat. Spacious and comfy. As for the food, I'll be fasting for days. We wrote. We ate. We talked. We ate. Some sang karaoke. We ate. A few of us drove to the point to see the ocean. Did I mention we ate?

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet some cyber friends from my online critique group. You ladies are great and I felt as if I'd known you forever. I got a tour of the town before I left. Little Compton is life as it should be.

Now I'm back at home and have to reorient myself to get back to work--both at my office and on my book. And I'm renewed with energy for both. The trophy, displayed above my fireplace, will serve as inspiration.

(Besides, it was nice to be included in the 'Hot Dames' category.)

Linda

This Just In...

2010-10-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

Next Time I'm Gonna Dance has finaled for a 2011 EPIC eBook Award in the Mainstream Category.

To read an excerpt and reviews, visit my website at http://www.lindarettstatt.com/

Be sure to click the book cover on the right here to find out more about the special promotion going on now through December 31 and that will raise money for Komen for the Cure.

Linda

A 5-Cup Review for Renting to Own!

2010-10-24T21:41:00.001-05:00

Renting to Own has received a 5-cup review from Coffee Time Romance and More. You can check it out here:

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/rentingtoownbylindarettstatt.html

Linda

An Interview with Sandra Cox

2010-10-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing multi- published author Sandra Cox. Sandra is quite prolific and has books published in several genres, including YA Crossover, Paranormal Romance, and metaphysics. Her latest book, Sundial, is a time travel romance now available at Class Act Books.

Thanks for being here today, Sandra. So tell us, how long did it take to get published? What was that experience like when you got the first contract?

A long, long time. When I finally did get an offer, it was a feeling of both validation and an incredible high.

What is your writing routine and the setting in which you usually write?

For the past several years, I’ve written in the Mole Hole. My office is in the basement. But lately I’ve been seduced by soft breezes, the sweet fragrance from the garden and the singing of birds. I take my laptop and go out on my screened in porch to write of an evening after I get home from work and on the weekends.

Do you belong to any writing groups or critique groups?

For several years, I belonged to FTHRW, an online critique group. I really feel it is thanks to the crit partners that I finally got published.

Has any of your work received an award?

Silverhills was an Eppie finalist. Shardai and Makita received Golden Wings, and Rose Quartz and Black Opal, Capa Nominations. Thanks for asking.

Wow, that's impressive, and you’re welcome. Now, tell us a bit about your most recently published book, Sundial.

Sundial a time travel romance has just been re-released with http://www.classactbooks.com/. It’s about Sarah Miles, a successful artist who specializes in painting gardens. While painting in a garden, she finds an old sundial with the words ‘fate cannot be altered’. Intrigued, she touches it and her incredible journey through time begins. (Excerpt at end of interview)

This sounds like a very engaging story. (LR adds to her TBR list) What are you working on presently?

I’m working on the third in my Hunter Series, about a young fashion conscious woman who is a vampire hunter.

What’s the most fun you’ve had when working on a manuscript?

I enjoy the Hunter Series. Zoe is a hoot. She’s a dedicated vampire hunter, but she refuses to leave the house with a chipped nail or shoes that don’t match her outfit.

Oh, she sounds like fun. I love characters who have distinctive quirks.

I know there are a number of writers who inspire me and have influenced my writing. Who are the authors you enjoy reading? Who inspires you with their writing?

Nora Roberts and Stephanie Meyer

How do you balance writing with promotion and the rest of life?

With great difficulty. Like most writers, I have a day job. My kids are grown so that just leaves the seven to ten animals that at any given time reside at our house. My husband and I have five cats, a dog, and foster cats for a local rescue group. I try to write every evening and on the weekends. If I drop a ball while juggling, it’s usually promotion. I really admire other authors that stay on top of this.

I hear you. It can be a true balancing act at times. Promotion time can be the first thing to go, and it’s so important. I struggle with the same thing.

Where can you be found on the web?

Thanks for asking.
http://www.sandracox1.com/
http://www.sandracox.blogspot.com/
http://www.downtownya.blogspot.com/
And I’m on Facebook and twitter.

And where can readers purchase your books?

The easiest place to get to is http://www.amazon.com/. The books can also be purchased directly through the publishers: http://www.cerridwen.com/, http://www.classactbooks.com/, http://www.wings-press.com/, and http://www.jupitergardens.com/.

What else would you like to share with our readers?

For a chance to win a ‘seeing’ necklace, a $10 Starbucks card and an autographed copy of Sundial, leave a comment at my blog: http://www.sandracox.blogspot.com/. Just mention Linda and Sundial in the comment section. The contest runs from October 15 – November 14 at 5:00 p.m. Sundial Tour Hostesses Are Invited to Enter the Contest.

Thanks so much for having me, Linda.

You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.

And, now, for your reading pleasure, here is an excerpt from Sundial by Sandra Cox.

Excerpt:

Sarah, her niece Meghan, and cat Monet have gone to a garden to paint:

A flash of color blinded her. Sarah blinked then squinted. For the first time, she saw that Monet was seated beside an old sundial.

“Meghan, come here. You’ve got to see this,” she called out excitedly, her headache forgotten. She heard an exaggerated sigh.

“You said not to come.”

“I’ve found an old sundial. Or rather Monet has.”

“A real one?” The rustling began again, as Meghan started pushing her way through.

“Appears so,” Sarah squatted down to study it. “Looks to be a hundred years old. I bet it’s valuable. You should see the intricate detail. This will make a great piece to paint!”

As Sarah studied it, she noticed the words. “There’s writing on it.” She read aloud, “Fate cannot be...drat, moss has grown over the rest of the words.”

A wave of superstitious terror washed over Meghan. Suddenly, the pieces all fell into place. And as the old woman had prophesied, she believed. “Sarah, don’t. Get out of there now. Please, Sarah, please,” she cried, her teeth chattering.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sarah asked irritably still studying the sundial.

“There’s actually heat radiating from it. Surprising, it’s not that warm out.”

“Sarah, please,” Meghan pleaded. “Don’t you remember what the old lady said?” She fought her way through the overgrowth, not feeling the scratches a thorny branch left on her face or the warm blood trickling down her cheek. But it was as if the thicket conspired to keep her out.

Tears streamed down Meghan’s face as she pushed at the bracken separating herself and her aunt. She broke through just as Sarah reached down to brush the moss from the sundial.

“No, Sarah, no,” she screamed. Later her mind would play the scene over again in slow motion: Sarah’s hand reaching out; Monet jumping playfully at her fingers, bringing them both in touch with the sundial; the boom; the jagged streak of white; and then nothing. They were gone, leaving Meghan alone in the clearing with the sundial.